Plain, Fancy and Fancy-Plain: The Dutch in the 21st Century

Rian Linda Larkin

Faculty Advisor: Alex Harris Center for Documentary Studies

December 2017

This project was submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Graduate Liberal Studies Program in the Graduate School of Duke University.

Copyright by

Rian Linda Larkin

2017

Abstract

In 1681, traveled to ’s - and invited Anabaptist and

Protestant groups to live and freely in Pennsylvania. Over the next century, 111,000 German- speaking men and women sailed to America, many settling in southeastern Pennsylvania.1 During this period, English-speaking residents began to use the term, “” to describe the new settlers who spoke Deitsch or Deutsch (German).

Today, the term Pennsylvania Dutch conjures visions of bonnets, , suspenders and horse- drawn buggies. However, this imagery only applies to the Old Order Anabaptist , which constitute less than half of Pennsylvania’s total PA Dutch population.2 3 Therefore, this project will examine and document four Pennsylvania Dutch communities in order to present a more accurate cultural portrait and contextualize the Pennsylvania Dutch populace in the 21st century, from anachronistic traditionalists to groups that have fully integrated into modern society.

The project documents the following religious communities: the Old Order , Horning

Mennonites, Moravians and Lutherans of southeastern Pennsylvania. Each section includes a historical overview, an interview with a community member and photographs taken on-location.

I conclude that church-imposed restrictions and geographical location shaped each group’s distinctive character and impacted how the groups evolved in the modern world. In addition, I identify contemporary issues which may further impact the language, traditions and culture of the Pennsylvania

Dutch communities. Finally, I present additional Pennsylvania Dutch groups in southeastern

Pennsylvania and argue why further examination is necessary.

1 Marianne Wokeck, Trade in Strangers: The Beginnings of Mass Migration to (State College: Penn State Press, 1999) 40-46. 2 The Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies. “Population by State/Prov. in 2016.” Etown.edu. http://groups.etown.edu/amishstudies/statistics/population-by-state/ (accessed August 5, 2017). 3 See “Pennsylvania German:” Census Bureau. “American Community Survey.” Census.gov. https://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ACS/15_5YR/B04006/0400000US42 (accessed August 5, 2017).

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Contents

Abstract ...... iii List of Photographs & Illustrations ...... v Acknowledgements ...... vii

Introduction ...... 2

The Pennsylvania Dutch: Historical Overview ...... 5 Plain, Fancy and Fancy-Plain

Chapter One: The ...... 12 Historical Background Mennonite Church Zimmerman Farm Interview

Chapter Two: The Amish ...... 28 Historical Background Amish Church Riehl Farm Interview

Chapter Three: The Moravians ...... 41 Historical Background Bethlehem, PA Interview

Chapter Four: The Lutherans ...... 58 Historical Background Lutheran Church Trappe, PA Interview

Conclusion ...... 73 The Misrepresentation of the Amish Religious Restriction and Geographical Location Further Research

Appendix A: Zimmerman Interview (Horning Mennonite) August 21, 2017 ...... 86 Appendix B: Riehl Interview (Old Order Amish), August 8, 2017 ...... 90 Appendix C: Walsh Interview (Moravian) September 15, 2017 ...... 93 Appendix D: Wentworth Interview (Lutheran) September 21, 2017...... 105 Appendix E: Kauffman Interview (Ex-Amish) August 21, 2017 ...... 112

Bibliography ...... 118

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List of Photographs & Illustrations

Figure 1 - over Covered Bridge, Berks County ...... 1

Figure 2 - Screenshots from Super 8 and 8mm Film ...... 4

Figure 3 - William Penn’s Promotional Sign for German Audience, 1681 ...... 5

Figure 4 - Charlie (Horning Mennonite), Zimmerman Farm, August 2017 ...... 17

Figure 5 - Rachel (Former Amish), Zimmerman Farm, August 2017 ...... 20

Figure 6 - Children Swimming, Zimmerman Farm, August 2017 ...... 20

Figure 7 - Sharon (Horning Mennonite) Zimmerman Farm, August 2017 ...... 27

Figure 8 - Sandbox, Zimmerman Farm, August 2017 ...... 27

Figure 9 - Ben (Old Order Amish), Riehl Farm, August 2017 ...... 33

Figure 10 - Team Horses, Riehl Farm, August 2017 ...... 33

Figure 11 - Marian (Old Order Amish), Riehl Farm, August 2017 ...... 40

Figure 12 - Plowing of Fields, Riehl Farm, August 2017 ...... 40

Figure 13 - Bethlehem Steel, Bethlehem PA, September 2017 ...... 50

Figure 14 - Moravian Cemetery, Bethlehem PA, September 2017 ...... 50

Figure 15 - Kristen (Moravian), Bethlehem PA, September 2017 ...... 57

Figure 16 - Moravian Tour Guide, Bethlehem PA, September 2017 ...... 57

Figure 17 - Lutheran Service, Trappe PA, September 2017 ...... 64

Figure 18 - Couple walking to Lutheran Service, Trappe PA, September 2017 ...... 64

Figure 19 - Library of Congress, Anti-German Sign, 1917 ...... 67

Figure 20 - Jennifer (Lutheran), Trappe PA, September 2017 ...... 72

Figure 21 - Old Chapel Graveyard, Trappe PA, September 2017 ……………………………………………………..…… 72

Figure 22 - Wooden Diving Board, Zimmerman Farm, August 2017 ...... 81

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Figure 23 - Zimmerman Farm, August 2017 ...... 81

Figure 24 - Hanging Laundry, Riehl Farm, August 2017 ...... 82

Figure 25 - Scooter, Riehl Farm, August 2017 ...... 82

Figure 26 - North Bethlehem, September 2017 ...... 83

Figure 27 - South Bethlehem, September 2017 ...... 83

Figure 28 - Old Chapel, Augustus Lutheran Church, September 2017 ...... 84

Figure 29 - Dutch Haven, Lancaster County, PA, Spring 2017 ...... 84

Figure 30 - Hex Sign Painter, Eric Claypoole, Lenhartsville, PA, Spring 2017 ...... 85

Figure 31 - Hex , Hamburg, PA, Spring 2017 ...... 85

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Acknowledgements

I’d like to thank my teacher and thesis supervisor, Alex Harris. Throughout this project, you encouraged me to look deeper, get closer and most importantly, ask meaningful questions.

Thank you Alex.

I would have been lost without the guidance and support from the GLS House. Thank you Dink

Suddaby, Donna Zapf and Kent Wicker for being steady, friendly guides over the years.

To Marian, Sharon, Kristen, Jennifer, Rachel, Linda, Karen and my parents, thank you for sharing your stories with me. This project couldn’t have been completed without you.

To Tatum and Lindy, thank you for accompanying me to the Pennsylvania Dutch country. You are now masters at finding hex signs, buggies, shoofly , sugar sticks and bank . I hope our time together encourages you to explore the world, meet new people and ask questions.

Finally, to my incredible husband Gus, who urged me to apply to the GLS program, cheered me on when I felt overwhelmed, and quietly listened while I recited essays on art repatriation, hex signs and femme fatales… you are spectacular.

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Fig. 1 - Hex Sign over Covered Bridge, Berks County

The Pennsylvania Dutch is the story of a people, of their past and of their present, and of the qualities that set them off from their neighbors. To a surprisingly complete degree the Pennsylvania Dutch are unlike their fellow . The language they spoke for nearly two centuries, and that some of them speak to this very day, was and is different. Their , for the most part, are different. Their barns and sometimes their houses, their way of farming, the way they cook their food: these are different too. Their clothing, their wagons, their horses, their guns, their pottery, their china - in the past, at least - all were different; even their proverbs, their , and their lullabies were different. Theirs was a way of life that differed from that of the rest of America not in one or two but literally in scores of ways.

- Fredric Klees, The Pennsylvania Dutch, 19554

4 Fredric Klees, The Pennsylvania Dutch (: The Macmillan Company, 1955) 1.

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Introduction

I didn’t know I was part of a Lutheran, Pennsylvania Dutch family until I was in my twenties, but as a child, I was keenly aware of the differences between my mother’s family and the more mainstream families in my hometown. My relatives didn’t go to movies, Little League games or roller skating rinks.

They stayed close to home. Constantly working with their hands, the men built furniture, worked on and repaired their homes. My aunts and grandmothers wore work dresses and filled their weekdays scrubbing, knitting, cooking and sewing. They took great pride in their homes, decorating interiors with lively, German-themed accessories such as cuckoo clocks, hex signs and trivets. They also had a funny way of speaking. They’d exclaim PA Dutch phrases such as “eat yourself full now” at dinner, and if my brother and I misbehaved they’d call us “nix nootz!” Yet, their distinctiveness was not limited to their singsong speech, dress or decoration. They shunned modern such as dishwashers, electric clothing dryers and microwaves, believing they were superfluous tools used by lazy people. They were also extraordinarily strict. They expected us to keep quiet, finish our food, follow commands and respect their belongings. It was as though their preoccupation with hard work, order and tidiness trumped familial warmth.

Perhaps for these reasons, my parents chose to opt out of the Pennsylvania Dutch lifestyle and move to the suburbs. Yet, as our PA Dutch family grew older and frailer, we realized we were witnessing the end of a cultural era. One by one, as each family member passed, our connection to the

Pennsylvania , culture and community weakened. By the turn of the 21st century, no one in my family classified themselves as Pennsylvania Dutch.

My interest in my family’s ties to the Pennsylvania Dutch was rekindled in 2015 when my mother asked me to digitize her family’s 8mm and Super 8 film reels from the 1950’s and 1960’s. I assumed they would be long past their expiration date and dreaded the inevitable call to inform her that her childhood memories were unsalvageable. However, when the package arrived I was reminded of my

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family’s stubborn fastidiousness and deference for the past. Packed tightly inside an old Tom Sturgis

Pretzel tin were fourteen 8mm and Super 8 film reels resting inside their original metal canisters and

Kodak boxes. Each reel had a short description and a name penciled in, William Trutt, my mother’s father. As the shaky, hazy images jumped across the screen, I felt as though I was spying on the everyday lives of strangers. I saw my mother chase dogs down alleyways, my icy grandfather embrace his children and my morose grandmother smile. Their lives were much more nuanced than I knew.

What was most surprising however, was the disproportionate amount of film used to document family members conducting housework. Scattered throughout hours of film, are lengthy scenes which showcase my family painting the barn, fixing the roof, manually sawing down trees, building structures and cleaning. Initially, these images seemed illogical and strange. For one, home movies were a costly enterprise in the 1950’s and 1960’s. They required a camera and subsequent shipping and processing fees, money my grandfather would typically not contribute to frivolous endeavors. Second, film was typically reserved for the documentation of important life events such as vacations and holidays.

Certainly not mind-numbing, domestic chores. However, as evidenced in the grainy screenshots taken from the home movies (Fig. 2), my family clearly valued hard work.

Over the course of this project, I’ve learned my family’s diligence and attention to hard work is not unique. Rather, reverence for hard work is a widely-held, cultural frame of mind which has evolved over five hundred years and was elemental to the perseverance of Pennsylvania Dutch communities in the face of persecution, poverty and cultural bias. Yet, the term “Pennsylvania Dutch” generally evokes images related to the Old Order Amish, not those of the Lutherans, Moravians or assorted Mennonite sects. Therefore, this project presents a wider, more accurate view of the Pennsylvania Dutch community, from fundamentalist Anabaptists to fully assimilated church groups.

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Fig. 2 - Screenshots from Super 8 and 8mm Film

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The Pennsylvania Dutch: Historical Overview

In 1681, William Penn acquired 46,000 square miles of mid-Atlantic forestland from King Charles II.5 Shortly thereafter,

Penn traveled to Europe’s Rhineland-Palatinate (,

Switzerland and eastern France) to encourage members of the

Anabaptist, Lutheran and Reformed churches to live and worship freely on his land.6 Beleaguered by the Thirty Years War (1618 –

1648), War of the Palatinate (1688-1697), unending sacks and raids, political instability and , scores of Fig. 3 - William Penn’s Promotional Sign for German Audience, 1681 men and women took the risk and accepted Penn’s offer.

According to Marianne Wokeck, approximately 111,000 German men and women immigrated to

America between 1683 and 1775. 81,000 of the emigrants entered through the port in , the city of brotherly love.7

The journey across the Atlantic was often tortuous. Illnesses such as smallpox, typhoid, scurvy and dysentery were common conditions, killing thousands of voyagers. According to Wokeck, “in the single worst year, 1748, the death rate was as high as 35 percent.”8 Even William Penn’s ship, the

Welcome (1682), was not spared from disease, with smallpox killing a third of its passengers.9 Immigrant

5 William Penn printed promotional signs to publicize Pennsylvania’s fertile land and economic opportunities to draw German emigrants to his new colony. In this advertisement, Penn promotes the abundance of iron in Pennsylvania. Image: version of William Penn's "Some Account of the Province of Pennsylvania in America," 1681. Credit: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission 6 To view the “Major Areas of Migration to the American Colonies” map, see: Simon J. Bronner, Joshua R. Brown, Pennsylvania : An Interpretive Encyclopedia (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2017) 24. 7 Marianne S. Wokeck, Trade in Strangers: The Beginnings of Mass Migration to North America (State College: Penn State Press, 1999) 40-46. 8 Wokeck, Trade in Strangers: The Beginnings of Mass Migration to North America, 540. 9 Herman L. Collins, Pennsylvania the Golden (Harrisburg: National Historical Association, 1933) 2.

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Hans Jacob Kauffman kept a diary of his harrowing voyage to America aboard the first “Amish ship” named Charming Nancy (1737):

The 28th of June while in Rotterdam getting ready to start my Zernbli died and was buried in Rotterdam. The 29th we got under sail and enjoyed only 1 ½ days of favorable wind. The 7th day of July, early in the morning, died Hans Zimmerman’s son-in-law. We landed in England the 8th of July remaining 9 days in port during which 5 children died. Went under sail the 17th of July. The 21st of July my own Lisbetli died. Several days before Michael Georgli had died.

On the 29th of July three children died. On the first of August my Hansli died and Tuesday previous 5 children died. On the 3rd of August contrary winds beset the vessel from the first to the 7th of the month three more children died. On the 8th of August Shambien’s (?) Lizzie died and on the 9th died Hans Zimmerman’s Jacobi. On the 19th Christian Burgli’s child died. Passed a ship on the 21st. A favorable wind sprang up. On the 28th Hans Gasi’s (?) wife died. Passed a ship 13 of September.

Landed in Philadelphia on the 18th and my wife and I left the ship on the 19th. A child was born to us on the 20th – died – wife recovered. A voyage of 83 days.10

Once docked at Philadelphia’s harbor, the migrants faced a wide range of new challenges. Those who were sick or couldn’t pay the voyage fee were kept aboard the vessel until sold to the highest bidder. By the mid 1700’s, the market for indentured servants was an established enterprise. Known as “ merchants” or “man stealers,” agents at the port delivered the emigrants “into the hands of the great

Dutch traffickers in human .”11 In a letter to Sir Everard Fawkener (July 27, 1756), documented the seedy conditions in the Philadelphia market. He wrote, “many servants are purchased young - whose family comes over, sells off a couple of kids to pay the freight of all."12 Those who could not be sold were sent to crowded boardinghouses to fend for themselves. Once released from the markets, emigrants were subjected to even more unexpected challenges.

By 1750, approximately 100,000 Germans settled in Pennsylvania, threatening the British and

American-born establishment.13 In 1751, Benjamin Franklin wrote the essay, Observations Concerning

10 John Hostetler, Amish Society (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993) 60-61. 11 Gottlieb Mittelberger, Journey to Pennsylvania (Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1960) 27. 12 Wokeck, Trade in Strangers : The Beginnings of Mass Migration to North America, 157. 13 John Frantz, “Franklin and the Pennsylvania Germans,” Pennsylvania History 65, no. 2 (1998) 31.

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the Increase of Mankind, Peopling of Countries, which voiced his concerns regarding the exponential population growth in America. In the book’s penultimate paragraph, Franklin argued:

Why should the Palatine Boors be suffered to swarm into our settlements, and by herding together establish their languages and manners to the exclusion of ours? Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a colony of Aliens, who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us instead of our Anglifying them, and will never adopt our language or customs, any more than they can acquire our complexion?14

While it’s surprising to read such an explicitly biased passage from America’s founding father, Franklin’s views mirrored those of the British-American community in the 1700’s. Worried Pennsylvania was becoming a colony of unpatriotic, uneducated and insular German-speaking communities, politicians and officials began to take action through legislation. In 1727, local officials required all adult German men over the age of fifteen to immediately walk from the ship to the courthouse and sign an of

Allegiance to “the British Crown and an oath of abjuration to the Pope and the House of Stuart.”15 In

1729, in an effort to dismantle the trading market, the Philadelphia assembly began taxing agents and masters who were involved in the trading of German emigrants.

The German language riled the British and American-born residents the most. Over time, assorted Rhenish and dialects merged into a standard Pennsylvania Dutch language, which the new settlers used to communicate with one another.16 As a result, English-speaking residents perceived the slow language assimilation to English an affront, coining the derogatory term, “Dumb

Dutch” to describe those who spoke the developing Pennsylvania Dutch language. In order to educate the German masses, William Smith, Provost of the University of Pennsylvania, founded “Charity Schools” to “instruct (German) children in the English tongue, and the value of those privileges to which they are

14 Benjamin Franklin, Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind, Peopling of Countries (New York: W. Abbatt, 1918) 224. 15 Farley Grubb, German Immigration and Servitude in America, 1709-1914 (Abingdon: Routledge, 2013) 131. 16 This process is known as “dialect leveling.” Walter de Gruyter, Sociolinguistics / Soziolinguistik (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2006) 2057.

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born.”17 Further, the Stamp Act of 1765 attempted to discourage the use of German language in documents and publications through increased taxation. Consequently, Pennsylvania Dutch immigrants grew resentful of British-American efforts to modify their language and culture, and retreated from

Philadelphia to found new communities in adjacent counties. In these new, cloistered settlements and homesteads, the Germans were able to live, worship and speak freely, as promised by William Penn.

Plain, Fancy and Fancy-Plain

Over the next century, the Germans spread out across southeastern Pennsylvania, settling in and around the cities of Allentown, Bethlehem, Hershey, Lancaster, Reading, and York. The Anabaptist

Mennonites, Amish, and Brethren settled primarily in Lancaster and Berks Counties. Known as the “plain Dutch” or “,” the Old Order Anabaptists dress modestly to this day, live simply, refuse to fight in wars and reject most modern conveniences.

Accordingly, the German Lutheran and Reformed Church members are known as the “fancy

Dutch” or “church people.” The settled primarily in Lehigh, Montgomery and Berks counties. They fight in wars and are not consumed with living or dressing plainly. They are also the creators of colorful crafts, hex signs and the distinctive Pennsylvania bank barn. Finally, the Moravian

Church, founded in Bethlehem, lies somewhere between the plain and fancy groups. For many years, the Moravians encouraged and lived in self-contained, communal settlements in Bethlehem,

Nazareth, Emmaus, and Lititz. Yet, the modern Moravian Church holds religious services which resemble those of the Lutheran and Reformed churches.

17 Samuel Edwin Weber, The Charity School Movement in Colonial Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: Press of G. F. Lasher, 1905) 12.

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While traditional groups such as the Old Order Amish have not seen significant religious or social changes over the years, many of the other Germanic groups have.18 For example, the “Assimilated” or

“Modern” Mennonite groups now constitute ninety percent of the total church population, making the

Old Order, horse-and-buggy Mennonites a minority within the community.19 Furthermore, many

Assimilated Mennonite communities now permit contemporary dress, transportation and technology.

Most notably, some modern Mennonite churches have diverged from traditional and Old Order church doctrine by offering female and LBGTQ membership.

The fancy Dutch have seen significant changes as well. In order to retain membership and interest, churches have loosened rules and altered services to appeal to the mainstream community. For instance, at the Trinity Lutheran Church (1751) in Reading, Pennsylvania, Reverend Alan Wolkenhauer offers church services at a local pub in order to, “have a good time and sing some songs of .”20 In

2014, the Moravian Church voted to allow the of who are in openly gay relationships, whether single, married or in covenanted relationships.

However, the other Pennsylvania Dutch groups are often overshadowed by the austere, agrarian Old Order Amish groups regularly depicted in the media. In order to present a more accurate cultural portrait and contextualize the Pennsylvania Dutch populace in the 21st century, this project will document four Pennsylvania Dutch communities: the Old Order Amish, Horning Mennonites, Moravians and Lutherans of southeastern Pennsylvania. Each section will include a historical overview, on-site photography and an interview with one member of each community.

18 The Old Older Amish constitute 85 percent of the total Amish population. See: Donald Kraybill, Who are the Anabaptists? : Amish, Brethren, Hutterites, and Mennonites (Scottsdale: Herald Press, 2003) 19. 19 The third group, the “,” have approximately twenty churches and constitute roughly 20 percent of the total Mennonite population, based on Donald Kraybill’s statistics. 20 Rhen, Brad. “First Draft: Beer and Combines Fellowship and Brew.” readingeagle.com. http://www.readingeagle.com/weekend/article/first-draft-beer-and-hymns-combines-fellowship-and-brew (accessed August 22, 2017).

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The interview questions are organized into the following topics: personal background, , community and culture. There are additional questions at the end of the interview which facilitate further discussion on any other topic the interviewee would like to discuss. The interview questions are intended to serve as conversational cues rather than scientific measurements, and are solely used to obtain a broader understanding of the individuals and communities of which they belong. The interview questions are:

About You: 1. What is your name? 2. What is your age? 3. Where did you grow up? 4. What was your childhood like? 5. Interesting story from your childhood? 6. What languages were spoken at home? 7. What type of school did you go to? 8. What is the last grade you finished in school? 9. Do you have any hobbies? 10. Do you have children? 11. What is your day-to-day life like? 12. What books do you read? 13. What do you do for fun?

About Religion: 1. What church do you belong to? 2. When were you baptized? 3. Can you describe your church? 4. How often do you go to church? 5. How important is the church in your life? 6. Have any changes occurred in your church in your lifetime? Feelings? 7. Anything your church does not allow, that you wish it would?

About Community: 1. Can you tell me about your community? 2. When was the first time you became aware you were in a specific community? 3. Has anything changed in the community? Feelings? 4. How do you see the community in the future? 5. Is there anything you would change about the community? 6. Is there anything from outside the community that you wish your community had? 7. Has the modern world changed your community in any way? 8. What do you know about the other PA Dutch communities? (Mennonite, Amish, Moravian, Lutheran)

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9. How do you think your community persisted?

About Culture: 1. How do you feel about your group’s culture? (traditions, food, language) 2. Unique cultural saying/expression? 3. Unique cultural tradition? 4. Unique cultural food tradition?

Final Thoughts: 1. What is most important to you: your group’s religion, tradition or community? 2. Any question you wished I asked that I didn’t? 3. What’s the most common question you get asked? 4. How do you think the outside world views your community?

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Chapter One: The Mennonites Historical Background

Whoever denies that infants be baptized fresh from their mother’s womb… let them be anathema. - Council of Carthage XVI (418 AD), Canon 2 confirmed by Pope St. Zosimos 21

The Mennonites are named after (1496 – 1561), a Catholic priest who joined the

Anabaptist movement in 1526.22 Developed during the Radical in the 16th century, the

Anabaptist movement sought a simpler church and rejected the repressive bureaucracies, flamboyant masses and ubiquitous iconography within the . The term, “Anabaptist” derives its name from Latin and roughly translates to "one who baptizes again." Accordingly, Anabaptists perform adult immersion and prohibit mandatory infant baptisms, believing only adults can decide whether or not they will fully accept church doctrine.

On January 21, 1525, (1498–1526), a founder of the Swiss-South German

Anabaptists, performed the first adult “believers” on a fellow co-founder despite threats from the local governments, Roman Catholic Church and like-minded, yet less radical Protestant group led by

Ulrich Zwingli. Following the baptism, Grebel and his colleagues traveled up along the River, visited villages, preached and performed baptisms on newly Reformed adults eager to be re-baptized. As the number of followers increased, so did the fury of the bureaucratic and religious establishment.

Within five years, Grebel and his co-founders were either imprisoned, beheaded, drowned or burned at the stake for their heretical faith.23 Despite the fate of the Anabaptist founders and supporters, the

21 William Hodges, Infant Baptism Tested by Scripture and History (New York: Stavely and M'Calla: 1844) 60. 22 Although not a founder, Menno’s prominence within the Mennonite Church is a result of his composed disposition, despite constant threats to his life, and a theological focus which helped define the Anabaptist faith. Menno was labeled a heretic and the Holy Roman emperor, Charles V issued an edict promising 100 guilders for his capture. Although a number of Menno’s friends and family were executed for offering shelter and safe passage, Menno evaded capture and died of natural causes in 1561. 23 The atrocities experienced by the Anabaptists were documented by Thieleman van Braght’s book, (1660), also known as The Bloody Theatre. In addition to the , Martyrs Mirror is revered by the Mennonites, and can be found in most homes.

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group continued to grow and evolve, ultimately sowing the seeds for future ecclesiastical revisions and ruptures.

On October 6, 1683, the first group of beleaguered Mennonite families arrived in America.

Settling in Germantown, a small area in northwest Philadelphia, the Mennonites initially held private services with established Quaker families. As Germantown’s population swelled, many Mennonites moved eastward to Lancaster County. According to Donald Kraybill and James Hurd, “by 1717, some seventy-five (Mennonite) families with more than five hundred adults and children had purchased hundreds of acres of land” along the fifty-mile long Pequea Creek which runs past Lancaster County.24

Known for its cooperative climate and ample farmland with rich, limestone soil, Lancaster County provided the ecological elements the Mennonites needed to survive in America.

Mennonite Church

The modern Mennonite Church is the largest, most diverse group within the Anabaptist society, with sixty different church groups in North America. The state of Pennsylvania has the largest population of baptized Mennonite members.25 There are three types of Mennonite assemblies: Old Order,

Conservative and Assimilated. As one might surmise, the Assimilated groups embrace the changes in the modern world and have loosened rules to allow technology, higher education, modern dress, divorce, the ordination of women and LGBT membership. The Conservatives straddle between the Old Order and

Assimilated churches: they maintain separatist lifestyles but permit some technology including electricity and telephones. Old Order Mennonites continue to follow the traditions of their European

24 Donald Kraybill, James Hurd, Horse-and-Buggy Mennonites: Hoofbeats of Humility in a Post-Modern World (University Park: Penn State University Press, 2006) 7. 25 Donald Kraybill, Who are the Anabaptists? Amish, Brethren, Hutterites and Mennonites (Scottsdale, Herald Press, 2003) 14.

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forefathers. They speak Pennsylvania Dutch at home, uphold separation from the modern world, reject higher education and most modern technologies.

In 1927, the Old Order was split in two by a named Moses Horning, who loved to drive cars. Horning and his -loving brethren were thereby named the “Horning Church,” to the dismay of their conservative, horse-drawn buggy counterparts, the “Wengers.”26 Horning Church members are known as the “black-bumper Mennonites,” a term coined to describe those who painted their car’s bumper black in an attempt to conform to Old Order rules. The modern manifestation of the

Horning Mennonite’s fascination with automobiles is one of the most peculiar sights to be seen in

Pennsylvania Dutch country. Every Sunday morning, like clockwork, Horning Church parking lots are jam- packed with black cars and SUV’s, most of which have black rims, bumpers and tinted windows.

According to Kraybill and Hurd, changes in language, technology and ornamentation have pushed the Hornings “dangerously toward the mainstream of American culture.”27 After the 1927 , English began to slowly replace the Pennsylvania Dutch language in Horning churches, a vital component of the Old Order religious service. Technologies such as business computers and tractor wheels are now the norm, rather than the exception on most modern Horning farms.28 Further, many

Horning homes now contain lively decorations, wall-to-wall carpeting and attractive landscaping, embellishments considered ostentatious and disrespectful by the traditional Old Order groups.29 Yet, despite the changes within the Horning society, the group continues to be classified as an “Old Order

Mennonite Church” which upholds values such as collectivism, pacifism, modesty, geographic autonomy and linguistic separatism.

26 The Wenger Mennonites are the principle focus of Donald Kraybill and James Hurd’s book, Horse-and-Buggy Mennonites: Hoofbeats of Humility in a Post-Modern World (University Park: Penn State University Press, 2006). 27 Kraybill, Hurd, Horse-and-Buggy Mennonites, 247. 28 Yet, the Hornings forbid technologies such as radios, television and the internet in their homes. 29 Kraybill, Hurd, Horse-and-Buggy Mennonites, 247-248.

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Zimmerman Farm

In July 2017, I called the Mennonite Information Center and asked for help finding a Mennonite family that was comfortable talking to a non-Mennonite graduate student. After discussing several potential farms, we decided on the Zimmerman dairy farm, situated twenty miles outside the city of

Lancaster. I called the number provided and spoke to Sharon, who said she would be happy for me to stay in her house, take photographs and conduct an interview.

When I arrived, I was greeted by Sharon and her husband, Lester. They ushered me to their brand new log home, which they built so their son, Charlie and daughter-in-law, Michelle could raise their family in the main farmhouse. Once inside, I was taken by the kitchen’s modern amenities including granite countertops, stainless steel oven and Keurig coffee maker. It was clear Sharon was proud of her kitchen and confident in her culinary skills, convincing me that her fried egg, bacon bits and cheese potato roll sandwich is among the best.

Sharon had to run out to help a family member who was just recently paralyzed in a tractor accident, but assured me she’d return sometime after dinnertime and we’d sit down, have a coffee and conduct our interview. Before leaving, she suggested I visit the pond, which she rents out twice a day

(morning and afternoon sessions) and to tell the occupants that “I am Sharon’s guest.” She also told me to use my “common sense” when I arrived at the electrical fences which cross the path to the pond. I wasn’t sure what she meant, but I told her I would.

On the long walk to the pond, I spotted Michelle hanging laundry outside the family farmhouse.

She was barefoot, wearing a brownish-gray work dress with her auburn hair peeking out from her white . Her pregnant belly seemed to defy her petite frame, yet she was holding a large laundry basket while reaching up and pinning clothes with ease. We exchanged warm “hellos,” but upon seeing my camera, she retreated back into the house.

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There is an unspoken rule within the plain Dutch communities: they typically do not pose for photographs by the “English.” They follow the biblical commandment, "thou shalt not make unto thyself a graven image," which stresses humility, hard-work and self-respect over physical appearance.30 Yet, many plain Dutch members tolerate unrehearsed photographs. Therefore, with these cultural limits in mind, I photographed only those who consented to photographs or from a distance, making sure their faces were unrecognizable.

The Zimmerman’s live on an eighty acre dairy farm with multiple barns, sheds and garages on- site. The driveway terminates at the entrance to a massive cow field overlooking miles of farms and pastures off into the distance. The air smells sweet and crisp here, perhaps a product of the lush vegetation or the dearth of automobiles in the surrounding area. As I stood at the first electrical fence, conjuring my common sense, I noticed several Mennonite men who had been busy digging a ditch stop and look out, waiting to see what I’d do next. It was clear this was a constant source of amusement for them: watching Sharon’s city guests, dizzy from the puzzling fence instructions and standing in this very spot, trying to figure out the best course of action. Determined to not electrocute myself, I cautiously pulled back the springy wire electrical fence clips, slipped through and continued down the narrow, mowed corridor, pleased with myself for making it through Sharon’s .

There were three women and nine children at the pond. As I introduced myself to Rachel and

Linda seated in the grass, Karen marched in from the water directly toward me. Sharon warned me that on occasion, some pond renters feel threatened by guests, however Karen couldn’t have been kinder. I explained what I was doing there, and she lit up. She exclaimed, “Well, you should interview Rachel! She has quite the story!” After receiving Rachel’s consent, I ran back to Sharon’s log cabin, through the electrical fence gauntlet, and grabbed my interview questions. On the way back, I saw Charlie looking up

30 The Holy Bible Containing the Old and New Testaments (New York: American Bible Society, 1859) 66.

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at the sky with a welder’s mask on his face. He looked over to me and said, “It’s happening!” This was the day of the solar eclipse. Charlie passed me the welder’s mask. The sun was partially eclipsed.

Fig. 4 - Charlie (Horning Mennonite), Zimmerman Farm, August 2017

I was not prepared to hear Rachel’s story (Appendix E). I assumed she was a Mennonite based on her hair covering and presence on Sharon’s property. However, I learned she was a former-Amish member who, along with her husband, “became Christian” while still members of the Amish community.

Rachel explained,

We thought we could be Amish and Christians at the same time, so we tried it for a year, year and a half, and we eventually needed to leave because they were asking us to stop our activities like Bible Study. So, we knew we couldn’t compromise that. We had some Amish friends that also came to faith over that time, so we gathered with them.

They approached us several times and the last time they said, ‘if you don’t stop, we will need to give consequences.’ And we knew that would be kicking us out. So, we just decided, rather than make a big ruckus, we’re just ‘gonna silently leave.

Rachel, her husband and children quietly packed everything up and left, leaving their families and communities behind. Rachel described the overall experience as painful,

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I can say when I was Amish, I just… I really enjoyed the lifestyle. I really didn’t want to leave. I had no intention of leaving. I didn’t ‘wanna leave. It was the hardest thing I did in my life. Cause I enjoyed a lot of things that we did.

After leaving the Amish, Rachel’s family joined the Charity Fellowship, a church which opens its doors to former Amish and Mennonite congregants.

Rachel and I spoke for an hour and a half, with the other ladies periodically chiming in (Karen is a former-Mennonite and Linda is a former-Amish). After a while, the answers became increasingly religious in nature. I started to get the sense that the group’s mission is to convert anyone who does not subscribe to their particular church doctrine - including me. On several occasions, Karen, who happens to be the ’s wife, asked me to visit the three-hour-long church service on Sunday so I could see for myself.

My time with Rachel, Karen and Linda left me feeling as though I had been thrown a curveball, since this pseudo-Anabaptist group was not covered in any literature I read to-date. On the walk back from the pond, I recalled the different types of head coverings I spotted in Lancaster earlier that day.

There were black crocheted like Rachel’s, white cotton and one pink made from translucent silk. I assumed the various coverings were modifications of the traditional stiff and soft caps with ties worn by the Amish and Mennonites. However, the interview with Rachel proved I’ve only reached the tip of the Anabaptist iceberg.

The Anabaptists of southeastern Pennsylvania are intricately tied to one another by history, doctrine and culture. Yet, each group’s rhetoric works to separate themselves categorically from the others. According to Rachel, Linda and Karen, the Charity Foundation rejects Amish and Mennonite conventions, yet maintains Anabaptist religious and cultural traditions such as adult baptism and modesty. Likewise, the Horning Mennonites are detached from the Wenger Mennonites, but their similarities appear to outweigh the differences. It seems even the flimsiest of differences are significant enough to compel division among the groups. I wondered how many fringe groups like the Charity

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Foundation existed in Lancaster County and more importantly, how other groups are regarded by people like Sharon who have opted to remain a part of the traditional church organization?

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Fig. 5 - Rachel (Former Amish), Zimmerman Farm, August 2017

Fig. 6 - Children Swimming, Zimmerman Farm, August 2017

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Interview

Sharon and I sat down on the living room couch for the interview around 9:00 pm. Her husband,

Lester sat off to the side and helped Sharon answer some questions, but generally remained quiet. We discussed the Charity Foundation at length, off-the-record. Neither Sharon nor I had enough information about the group to make any on-the-record statements. Nevertheless, Sharon told me she knew Rachel and was aware of her involvement in the church’s outreach program.

Sharon grew up “right here, on this farm,” a fifth generation dairy farm located in Narvon, a small community in northeast Lancaster County. Sharon’s early life was unique, as she was adopted by her mother and father when she was just four days old. When asked about her childhood, she said simply, “coming here, I feel so overly blessed that I don’t know why I would even want more. You know,

I just can’t thank my parents enough.” She stressed that her parents made the kids work hard, “but we loved each other and we took care of each other.” Sharon continually credited her parents for her healthy parenting skills and wholesome, well-adjusted children throughout the interview. She described her mother as a “happy medium… not too strict and not too liberal,” and her father as an “incredibly good man.” Expounding on her father’s influence on her childhood and adulthood, Sharon enthusiastically recalled,

And another thing that my father always said, and I think that’s what really helped us, is to just stay where we were. He would say this… if we wanted to go somewhere and they didn’t think we should go… my father would say, ‘well, you decide. If you wanna go there and you wanna be there when comes back, you decide if you wanna go.’ He never said we couldn’t go! And you know what, Rian? I never went. And I pass that on to my children. It’s a good thing to pass onto your children.

Sharon’s father decided to leave the Wenger Mennonite Church for the “black bumper” Horning

Church because he wanted to own his own car. His decision was not a rebellion against the church, rather a rational, thoughtful decision. Sharon clarified her father’s reasoning in simple terms, “He wanted the car. He just felt like the car was not an evil thing. He just wanted a car for transportation, so you couldn’t stay with the Old Order Mennonites if you had a car.” Sharon continued, “I don’t know

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anything other than a car,” and expressed no remorse or guilt about her father’s transfer to the

Horning church. In fact, one peek into Sharon’s garage would prove she shares her father’s love for modern transportation.

Sharon’s family, like many Mennonites in Lancaster County, are dairy farmers and regularly contract with large dairy corporations such as Hill or Land-o-Lakes. Over time, this agricultural cooperation has enabled Lancaster County to become the leading milk producer in Pennsylvania.31

However, due to increasing demand, American agricultural markets have been gradually pushing farmers to “get big or get out.”32 In response, the Mennonites, along with other rural Pennsylvania

Dutch groups, have become more entrepreneurial, opening businesses and taking second jobs to keep the farm and maintain a reasonable standard of living for their family.

In order to supplement their family dairy business, Sharon and Lester started their own companies. Lester owns a flooring business which regularly takes him away from the farm early in the morning until mid-afternoon. Sharon owns a sewing business named “Grandma’s Lullaby” which employs “29 young, new mothers” who make baby clothing. Although infrequent, some Mennonite businesses are owned by women and typically create traditional female-oriented products such as arts, crafts, clothing, quilts and food products. Sharon’s business is reminiscent of the female Mennonite sewing groups initially founded in the early 1900’s. Known as “sewing circles” (Nähverein), groups of

Mennonite women provided garments, bandages and blankets for refuges and troops during World War

I and II.33 Over time, sewing circles have increased in popularity and today, function to support international charities and generate supplementary income for new Mennonite mothers.

31 To see agricultural statistics in Lancaster, PA: Lancaster County Agricultural Council. “Lancaster Leads the Way.” lancasteragcouncil.com. https://www.lancasteragcouncil.com/resources (accessed August 23, 2017). 32 Bronner, Brown, Pennsylvania Germans: An Interpretative Encyclopedia, 193. 33 Andrew Klager, From Suffering to Solidarity: The Historical Seeds of Mennonite Interreligious, Interethnic, and International Peacebuilding (Eugene: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2015) 182.

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The times are changing. So they need to compromise and go with what’s out there. -Sharon Zimmerman

Unlike some of the other groups surveyed in this project, the Horning Church has experienced considerable growth over the past decade. Sharon attributes the church’s growing numbers to members leaving the Old Order Wenger Church, not out of spite or disinterest, but rather out of necessity to conduct business in the modern world.

There’s more people coming in. The Old Order Mennonites are really coming in. The ones that got . They’re now driving the car and because of the Old Order Mennonites having an issue with their computers. The younger generation is now joining our church. So that they are able to function and have their business. Like young, married, in their twenties, thirties.

When the computer came in and the internet… that was a big thing. It’s a big thing. And it was, ‘do they or don’t they?’ And you know, a lot of Mennonites, have businesses. So they almost needed to have a computer.

As Sharon and Lester learned from their own work experience, businesses rely on computers, databases and internet advertising in order to increase visibility and compete in the mainstream, high-tech world.

For these reasons, and in an effort to keep its entrepreneurial members, the Horning church has gradually relaxed its rules for business owners, allowing computers loaded with a Mennonite-approved internet safety application.

They came up with a system that they now allow us to have the computer, but we ‘kinda have to go under a program that blocks some of the things you just wouldn’t want your children to see. So you’re kind of protected in a way, yet you can still use it and order and do your thing.

Unsurprisingly, the modifications in the Horning Church have irritated the hardline Old Order congregants who believe every step away from the prescribed Mennonite way of life further isolates the dedicated traditionalists and weakens the church’s original mission. A Wenger farmer describes the shift

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away from as, “the more Old Order you are, the more you think of yourself as sticking to the old ways. You’re on the bottom rung of the ladder. The others are moving up.”34

Old Order sects don’t recruit religious converts, so the church’s future depends on its youth.

However, Sharon other Old Order groups have created inflexible, “sheltered” environments which create unrealistic, unsustainable expectations for its young members. Using the Old Order Amish as an example, she argues,

The Amish would quicker maybe go out and explore (the world) maybe a little more than we do. Because they’ve been sheltered. Too much. Like, we’re able to go out and… how should I say this? I wouldn’t say that we blend in with everyone out there, but we’re out there and we’re not so closed in from everybody else.

For instance, when I was growing up, my father had a produce patch. And when I was little, like younger than 8 years old. We would go down to Reading with our produce and we would walk from porch to porch and we would sell our produce in the city. So, we were involved with a lot of people and a lot of people knew my dad and they loved my dad. We were people persons. So we interacted with them and them as we grew up, we were teenagers, it wasn’t like ‘No, you may not do this!’

I think the Amish are maybe a little more sheltered and when they become teenagers… Oh, they want to go out and try out all this stuff. They probably get into doing some stuff…. they do their years, which we don’t really encourage our youth to do that. Not really. They have their youth groups that they go with but they don’t go out and necessarily…just go out and do stuff that’s wrong. The Amish are up to stuff you wouldn’t want your children to do! They can have big parties that involves live bands, lots of beer, and they can go on until 2, 3 o’clock in the morning. Or all night long.

While some Old Order sects (including the Mennonites) do have incidents similar to the party Sharon detailed, they are rare.35 As Kraybill, Johnson-Weiner and Nolt note, “some youth do these things, but most do not” and caution that “sweeping generalizations about Rumspringa is simply hazardous” to the

Old Order Anabaptist culture and character.36 Nevertheless, Sharon’s response illustrates the fact that

Old Order inflexibility could, and sometimes does, backfire in the Anabaptist community. As Sharon put

34 Bronner, Brown, Pennsylvania Germans: An Interpretative Encyclopedia, 13. 35 Parties also occasionally occur in the Mennonite community. (See: Chapter, “Fitting in with Mennonite Ways,” Donald Kraybill, Carl Bowman, On the Backroad to Heaven (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University, 2001) 85.) 36 Kraybill, Johnson-Weiner, Nolt, The Amish, 216.

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it, the grass certainly isn’t always “greener on the other side of the (Anabaptist) fence,” but some Old

Order regulations are forcing congregants to choose between happy, productive lives and the church.

When asked what was more important, religion, tradition or community, Sharon replied, “my religion and then my family” without hesitation. This is a common sentiment within the Mennonite

Church, which endorses a way of life known as “Gelassenheit,” a German word which translates to “calm submission,” and can be defined as a “resignation to ’s will” or the “primacy of the group over the individual.”37 And yet, after spending time with Sharon, it became clear that she believes in something much simpler than a theological principle: she believes in common, human decency.38

Sharon proudly shared her secret to familial happiness, “What you do with them on your lap and what you let them get away with, that’s where it’s at. But you also have to be a friend to your children.

You have to be their mother and their parent, but you still have to be their friend.” In an age of women’s rights and social equality, Sharon’s focus on child-rearing and homemaking may seem old-fashioned, inequitable or dull to some. However, the Mennonite church subscribes to the biblical “God, Christ, man, woman” hierarchy. This specific order was not intended to promote male-superiority within the

Mennonite community, rather, it endorses the traditional, God-given roles of men and women.

Accordingly, most Mennonite women don’t view motherhood or marriage as repressive positions, but powerful, honorable pursuits which shape the principles and ethics of future generations.

At the end of the interview, Sharon asked where my family lives now. When she heard my brother lives in Wyomissing, she launched into the following story:

I had an aunt who lived in the Wyomissing area. My aunt was not Mennonite. She left the Mennonites….my father’s sister. My father said, ‘she’s still my sister and I still love her.’ So, some of my aunts and uncles were a little bit, they didn’t like that. They drove horse and buggy. They were Old Order Mennonites. My parents come from the Old Order Mennonites and my father got the car.

37 Donald Kraybill, Carl Bowman, On the Backroad to Heaven (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University, 2001) 181. 38 Despite long-term back problems, Sharon spent the entire day installing wheel-chair friendly flooring at her nephew’s house.

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But my mother said when my aunt decided to leave and totally get rid of her Mennonite dress, everything… she still did not have a car. So she (Sharon’s mother) said, ‘this lady comes down the back road with a horse-and-buggy… and I looked and I thought, who is coming in a bright red suit in this horse-and-buggy?’ And she said, ‘it was a short skirt and it had a jacket, tight blazer to match the skirt.’ And she was like, ‘who is in the buggy?’ She said, ‘it come in the driveway!’ She’s like, ‘I looked out the window and I’m thinking what in the world!?’

It was Aunt Liddy! And she come in with a garbage bag full of whatever…she was carrying it on the walk and she had her hair cut and had it all curled up nice. You know, lipstick. I mean she was all dolled up! But she didn’t have a car yet! And my mom said, ‘Liddy! What is going on?’ and Aunt Liddy says, ‘well, I decided that I’m moving to Reading.’ And my mom said, ‘oh, what for?’ And she said, ‘well, I met this young man down there.’ And she said to my mother, ‘I brought all my clothes for you because I figured you’re the only one that would take ‘em.’

So my mother took her clothes. But you know, they never, ever talked ill about my aunt Liddy. Never. And we went to visit them. We thought it was great ‘cause she would put in movies for us to watch on TV and my parents never said we couldn’t watch. They said when we go visit somebody’s house and that’s what they have, you’re respectful. You’re not going to tell them to turn it off. So they were very, how would you say, that’s what I liked about my parents because they were a happy medium. They did not put people down, they didn’t shove them down. They loved them for who they were. I mean that’s what Jesus would have done.

Sharon’s unprompted story perfectly illustrates the differences between the Horning Mennonites and other Old Order groups. The Old Order society methodically obeys the church’s “,” a particular set of rules determined by the congregation’s bishop. In the case of Aunt Liddy, who was baptized in the

Old Order Mennonite church, her crime would warrant or “shunning.” Although Old

Order Mennonites don’t shun ex-members as harshly as the Old Order Amish, they do practice social avoidance, as evidenced in Sharon’s story.39 However, the Horning church takes a different approach.

They don’t believe everything forbidden by the Ordnung is sinful. Rather, before taking action, they simply ask themselves, “What would Jesus do?”

39 The history of the Ordnung is covered further in the following section, The Amish: Historical Background.

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Fig. 7 - Sharon (Horning Mennonite), Zimmerman Farm, August 2017

Fig. 8 - Sandbox, Zimmerman Farm, August 2017

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Chapter Two: The Amish Historical Background

In 1693, over a century after the first Anabaptist baptism, Swiss-born (1656 –

1708 to 1730) sought to adopt a more austere, structured way of life for his brethren. Ammann pointed to the first Anabaptist document, the of Faith (1527), which lists seven guiding principles of the movement.40 They include:

1. Adult Baptism: Baptisms are allowed to adults who have repented, modified their lives and confirm Christ died for their sins. The adult must personally request the baptism. 2. The Ban (Meidung): If a congregant sins, he/she shall be warned up to two times privately. If a congregant sins three times, he/she will be publicly banned from the church. 3. Concerning Breaking the Bread: Congregants will be baptized before partaking in the Lord’s Supper ( or Communion). 4. Separation: Congregants will stay physically separated from the outside world. 5. Shepherds: Anabaptist pastors must lead a respectful life based on the Gospel. They are expected to educate and discipline congregants. 6. The Sword: Congregants will refuse to bear arms. 7. Rejection of : Congregants will not make promises.

Ammann’s main point of contention with the Mennonites was the practice and interpretation of the second principle, “Meidung,” or the expulsion of congregants who violated church doctrine. The

Mennonites believed the Schleitheim Confession of Faith permitted families to eat meals with expelled members, drawing on Matthew 15:11 which states, “what enters the mouth does not defile a man, but what goes out of the mouth.”41 However, Ammann took a hard line, denouncing all social interaction with shunned members. Paul Wallace, author of Pennsylvania: Seed of a Nation portrayed Ammann’s

Meidung as:

When a husband or father (it is usually the man who errs) is ‘hit by the Meidung,’ as they express it, his wife is forbidden to eat or sleep with him, and the whole community is under obligation to ostracize him. There is nothing for him to do but, as they say, ‘go English,’ which means to leave the community and enter the world of the unsaved.42

40 C. Wenger, The Schleitheim Confession of Faith, Mennonite Quarterly Review, 19 (1945), 243-53. 41 Hostetler, Amish Society, 36. 42 Paul Wallace, Pennsylvania: Seed of a Nation (New York: Harper & Row, 1962) 61-62.

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After failed negotiations with the Mennonites, Jakob moved to the Rhineland-Palatinate with his supporters, launching the new Amish (originally named the Amish-Mennonites.)

In 1737, the first wave of 248 Amish men and women set off from Rotterdam for Philadelphia on the Charming Nancy.43 Once established in Berks, Chester and Lancaster counties, the Amish settlers requested guidance from their German brethren on how to operate in America. In response, the heads of church developed the "Amish Ordnung,” a basic set of unwritten rules which regulate the congregation’s “private, public, and ceremonial life by oral tradition rather than by written rules.”44 The

Ordnung maintains that all members must work hard, remain detached from the modern world, dress plainly and women must submit to their husbands. Over time, the Ordnung provided the Amish for turning away from modern technologies such as automobiles, public electricity, internet access and central heating.

Amish Church

Each Amish congregation contains thirty to forty families and is considered a separate “church district.” Every district has the authority to convene bi-annually and modify some Ordnung policies to fit the congregation’s needs.45 For example, a district could deem steel wheels, rather than wooden wheels, to be more appropriate for farm equipment on rocky terrain. In some districts, members have negotiated the use of community and family phones which are kept in the barn or other structures which are detached from the main family house.46 More frequently, the bi-annual meetings define where the district will hold services.

43 Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild. “Ship Charming Nancy.” immigrantships.net. https://www.immigrantships.net/v3/1700v3/charmingnancy17371008.html (accessed July 19, 2017). 44 Donald Kraybill, Karen Johnson-Weiner, Steven Nolt, The Amish (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013) 118. 45 Hostetler, Amish Society, 12. 46 Donald B. Kraybill, The Riddle of Amish Culture (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003) 146.

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Amish families take turns holding church services in their homes. The church service takes place in the host’s barn or main living room, with the (male) preacher standing between the men and women seated on opposite sides. Church authorities, such as , preachers and deacons are always male and randomly appointed by “drawing lots,” a practice widely employed in the Bible to reveal God’s will.

The drawing of the lots often takes place on communion day, a special day for the Amish. The drawing is an intriguing and elaborate event. Church members walk up to a slightly ajar door or window and whisper a name of the person they believe to be a good candidate to the deacon, who is seated inside.

The bishop then writes a verse from the Bible on a piece of paper and slides it into a hymnal. The candidates line up and select a hymnal from a pile. If their chosen hymnal contains the verse, they become the new preacher. It is common for congregants to weep for the chosen candidate and his new, life-altering responsibility. But more importantly, they weep because they believe God chose the candidate, and in that very moment, they feel closer to God.

Riehl Farm

In July 2017, the Lancaster information center suggested I contact the Riehl dairy farm, located just outside Lancaster city limits. I called the number provided and spoke to Anna, who said she would be happy for me to spend the night, follow her around and conduct an interview.

When I arrived on August 8th, 2017, Anna’s daughter, Marian walked down to greet me and explained her mother was on a vacation paid for by Land-o-Lakes, the corporation contracted with the dairy farm. Marian said she we be happy to sit down with me for an interview and allow me to document her family’s life on the farm. We set the interview time for 7:30pm, after Marian finished cleaning up after dinner. In this moment, I was reminded of a book I read earlier in the week, The Amish

Struggle for Modernity, which discussed Amish time. According to Donald Kraybill, author and educator at the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College,

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The Amish have historically not adopted ‘fast’ time (daylight saving time), preferring instead the traditional slow time. This not only enforces Amish separation from the world, but also symbolizes their preference for a traditional pace that rejects what some Amish call ‘crazy time’ and avoids ‘the rat race.’47

I decided I’d make myself available all evening.

The Riehl’s live on a sixty-six acre dairy farm off a winding, two-lane country road. Similar to a country compound, the property contains several barns, two main houses connected by a covered walkway, and multiple sheds, silos and standalone buggy garages. Encircling the structures are several dozen acres of cornfields with stalks that were seven feet tall, a full two months away from the fall harvest. Like many Pennsylvania Dutch properties, the house is situated atop a hill which overlooks the fields. The road is visible from the porch, offering a vista to watch a steady stream of horse-drawn buggies and young Amish girls and boys pushing their scooters down the road.

Keeping a neat house is like threading beads on a string with no knot on it. - Amish Proverb 48

Marian stayed near the main house most of the day, tending to kitchen and laundry chores. As she hung the family’s work dresses, pants and shirts, I was struck by how serene, almost joyful she appeared, despite a day’s work ahead. As Marian moved her work indoors, her brothers worked feverishly, buzzing back and forth between the barns, stables and fields. The oldest, Ben, entered and exited the dairy barn much of the day, clearing manure, milking, moving and caring for the cows. Ben stopped to introduce his wild-eyed yellow lab puppy, who was carrying a tiny dead bird in his mouth.

Ben told me the puppy was “chust playin’ around,” and promptly went back to work in the barn. The youngest, Ivan, kept to himself but was no less active than Ben. He cleaned the stables, fed the animals,

47 Donald B. Kraybill, Marc Alan Olshan, The Amish Struggle for Modernity (Lebanon: University Press of New England, 1994) 60. 48 Suzanne Woods Fisher, Amish Values for Your Family (Grand Rapids, Revell Books, 2011) 22.

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worked on a buggy and mowed the fields. On two occasions, the men stopped and spoke Pennsylvania

Dutch to each other from separate, fenced fields. I couldn’t understand what they were saying, but from the pointing, I got the sense they were discussing what chores they still had to finish.

This frenetic work pattern continued until just before dinnertime, when a line of five large work horses began to slowly march down the hill. Behind them and barely visible, was a small cattle dog proudly pushing them forward until they all abruptly stopped in front of the barn. As if he did this job a thousand times, the dog walked up beside the horses and gazed sideways toward the house, awaiting his next command. This measured, dog-horse procession was not only a visually magnificent spectacle, it was also demonstrative of life on an Amish farmstead. There is a specific, inflexible order here, everything has a place and all inhabitants - humans and animals - contribute to the smooth operation of the farm.

Yet, as an outsider from the modern world, this type of coordination is difficult to cognize.

Throughout the day, I found myself wondering if every day was a repeat of this observed day. And if so, I questioned whether this simple, agrarian life was truly fulfilling. I wanted to learn more and as the sun began to set, I was hopeful my interview with Marian would shed some light on Amish life.

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Fig. 9 - Ben (Old Order Amish), Riehl Farm, August 2017

Fig. 10 - Team Horses, Riehl Farm, August 2017

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Interview

Marian arrived at the cottage around 8:00pm and was wearing a different, salmon-colored work dress. We were both visibly nervous, but ready to proceed. I told her that she was free to pass on any question she didn’t feel comfortable with. She answered every question.

Marian grew up on her family’s farm in Gordonville, Pennsylvania, a rural village in eastern

Lancaster County. When asked to describe her childhood, she said she was “raised up really good.” She recalled how she and her seven other siblings enjoyed dressing the “dogs and cats in old rags” and building grocery stores from old boxes on the barn’s second story. Marian was grateful her parents were always home, occupied the children with chores and did not purchase a television. The average Amish family has 6.6 children and each child is asked to help with daily chores by age five or six.49 Children are encouraged to be useful at an early age, with the idea that chores teach children accountability and the virtues associated with hard work. Marian and her siblings were asked to “pack the lunches before school” and complete the “milking in the morning.” Assigned family chores continue well into adulthood, and Marian proudly shared that she continues to milk the cows every morning.

Marian was educated in one-room schoolhouse with thirty students and only one other classmate in her particular grade. Like most American public schools, the Amish school day runs from

8:30am-3:30pm. The Amish curriculum concentrates on the teaching of the three R’s (reading, writing and arithmetic) and English language. In addition to the core curriculum, Amish schools stress social responsibility. Focusing on the “Golden Rule,” Amish teachers encourage children to support one another in order to foster a unified, loving and respectful society. Marian finished school in the eighth grade, the prescribed termination point for all Amish schools.50 Amish teachers are often older teenagers who’ve completed the mandatory eight years of schooling followed by a three year-long

49 In comparison, the average American family has 3.3 members. Kraybill, The Riddle of Amish Culture, 74. 50 Some Amish communities also have “vocational” schools which offer job training for children not yet old enough for a work permit.

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teaching apprenticeship. While this fact often alarms the greater educational world, the Amish believe their school structure compliments their insular, organic lifestyle, by relying heavily on community cooperation rather than complicated outside regulations.

Marian’s daily life is busy from the moment she wakes until bedtime. On the day of the interview, Marian canned peaches early in the morning with her sister and after “hugging on” her nieces and nephews, she “did (the entire family’s) laundry, made dinner, cleaned, then made yogurt and bread for breakfast the next morning.” In addition to her responsibilities at home, Marian has a part-time job at the local plant nursery. She said the job was personally fulfilling, as it offers her a venue to meet and interact with new types of people. Her chosen part-time occupation is also not uncommon, as the Amish are “people of the land” and often gravitate toward jobs which incorporate working with the hands such as quilting, building, growing plants and selling produce.51

Although she is not currently reading anything at the moment, Marian said she reads “love story books.” When asked if she meant romance novels, she clarified, “inspiring books, like about God’s love… how God works to get couples together.” The Amish Romance novel is one of the bestselling subgenres of Inspirational Romance fiction and is ubiquitous in Lancaster County. Known as “bonnet rippers,” a play on the term “bodice-rippers,” Amish Romance novels include female protagonists who confront life events ranging from childbirth, religious doubt, natural disasters and even buggy accidents. Amish romance books nimbly dodge taboo topics related to sex, nudity or violence, prompting the reader’s imagination to fill in the blanks. As seen in author Wanda Brunstetter’s novel, Going Home, the protagonist’s romance gradually develops from friendship, and close conversation, and then suddenly ends with an epilogue showing the couple, two years later, married and with child.52

51 Donald Kraybill, Steven Nolt, Amish Enterprise: From Plows to Profits (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004.) 20. 52 Wanda Brunstetter, Going Home (Uhrichsville: Barbour Publishing, 2009) 312.

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Marian was baptized at sixteen, but noted the discrepancy between the baptismal age for boys, which occurs sometime during their eighteenth year. Earlier in the day, Marian stated Amish boys needed “extra time” to think about staying within the community and jokingly suggested it was due to a slower maturation rate than girls. This seemed to be a point of interest to Marian. During the interview she divulged, “there are a lot of Amish going English because they just don’t want the Amish life anymore. When people leave, they go English. Sometimes they come back, but not usually.” Marian is referring to “Rumspringa,” the practice of loosening Old Order rules in order to allow boys and girls a chance to explore the world, socialize with peers and determine whether they’d like to commit to the

Amish Church and lifestyle through baptism.53

While both sexes start Rumspringa between fourteen and sixteen years of age, the boys have a distinct advantage. According to Charles Hurst and David McConnell, during Rumspringa “boys are typically given more freedom in dress and behavior, including cars for some Old Order males. Boys usually receive a horse and buggy on their sixteenth birthday, whereas girls are more likely to receive furniture or other gifts related to their future roles as wives and mothers.” 54 However, this gender inequity does not bother Marian. She appears to be genuinely content fulfilling her role as an Amish woman, cheerfully stating, “I like the life I have” and “I wouldn’t change a thing.”

It’s of course not what it used to be. Of course, because people are leaving. -Marian Riehl

The social and familial pressure to stay Amish is intensified by the Ordnung. If an Amish teen leaves, they are disconnected from the church, the linchpin of the greater community. Recalling an

Amish friend who left, Marian asserted, “we just had to let her go…that’s her life, it’s not our life. The

53 Rumspringa translates to “running around.” 54 Charles E. Hurst, David L. McConnell, An Amish Paradox: Diversity and Change in the World's Largest Amish Community (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 2010) 80.

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ministers can’t do anything about it. It’s her choice. Of course it’s hard on us, but it’s just her choice, so we just have to let it go.” Marian bewilderedly mused, “I can’t understand how people can do it. It’s out in the world again.” Marian’s statement and tone illustrates the classic Amish view of the modern world: in essence, being ‘out in the world’ is akin to floating adrift in the middle of the ocean.

In truth, the Amish community retains eighty-five percent of its members, but the concern expressed by Marian is based in logic.55 The modern world is often not accommodating for socially and economically inexperienced Amish teens. For one, Amish teens regularly work at Amish-owned stores or companies, such as produce stores or construction crews. If they turn away from the Amish society, they lose their connection to the community and thus, source of income. To make matters worse, a limited, eighth grade education often proves to be a barrier to employment in the mainstream job market.

Although Marian is concerned about people leaving, her commitment to the community never wavers. She asserted, “You just grow up with it, you’re so used to it. Like when you go to school… it’s just normal.” Amish life is ingrained at an early age: familial guidance, school curriculums and church mandates all function to shape each child’s social and religious views. When asked what was more important: the religion, traditions or community, Marian answered,

I like how we dress. I would say traditions. It’s nice that we keep our traditions, because otherwise we’d kind of fall apart. It all binds us together and keeps this (the Amish community) going.

This answer surprised me, as I was sure Marian would feel compelled to say religion. Yet, I’ve come to understand that the Amish community’s continued adherence to Old Order traditions, such as and use of horse-and-buggies, have been essential to the group’s persistence. According to John

Hostetler, Amish traditions “are an expression of obedience to God and of ‘protest’ to the proud and disobedient world.” 56 Therefore, compliance with Amish tradition is a self-fulfilling behavior: it offers a

55 Steven Nolt, The Amish: A Concise Introduction (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016) 52. 56 Hostetler, Amish Society, 237.

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sense of solidarity, and a connectedness through the visual affirmation of each member’s commitment to God and community.

At the end of the interview, I asked Marian how, in her estimation, the outside world perceives the Amish. She revealed,

I think a lot of people like the Amish. Amish farms are kept nice. Their flower beds… you can always tell when an Amish person lives at a place. They have a goal in their life and like working, and working on the land. We were in for two days last week and there you see flowers and big flowerbeds, but it’s not like (what you’d see) in Lancaster. Amish people know what they like and take care of it.

Although the Amish take great care of their gardens, Marian was using the topic as an allegorical reference to describe her opinion of the modern “English” family. Through interactions with the English at her family’s farm, plant nursery and beyond, Marian has become disheartened by divorce and the damage it inflicts on families.

It’s for real sad how so many people are divorced. I mean, there are some Amish people too that don’t live together… the man just left. But we don’t have divorce. If an Amish man would just run away, the woman would not get married again. It’s just sometimes hard to see all these English people, like is this your child or is this his child? It’s so ridiculous!

We just sometimes say, ‘okay, we’re not even going to ask people if they’re married or not. ’Cause sometimes there a big story behind it, the child is with the grandma? It’s his… It’s hers…

We just believe that if God thinks it’s possible, then it’ll work out. We try not to worry, even though we do sometimes. If you trust in God, you don’t worry. We think about what we want in life before we get married. I know there’s people out there who fall in love and get married and have problems afterward.

I know what I want, and I’m sure my husband’s going to have problems someday too, he’s not going to be perfect. We’re not perfect and we all make mistakes, but we forgive each other and move on.

Marian’s expression and tone conveyed a genuine concern for the mainstream family. After each Amish adult is baptized, marriage is the next important decision to be made within the Amish Church, a choice which is not to be taken lightly. Divorce is prohibited by the Ordnung and considered so disgraceful that if one partner “goes English” and leaves the community, the partner left behind cannot remarry until

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the former spouse dies.57 While these church-mandated matrimonial restrictions may seem heavy- handed to the outside world, the end-result can’t be overlooked: the Amish divorce rate is less than one percent compared to forty to fifty percent in the United States.58 59

57 Kraybill, Johnson-Weiner, Holt, The Amish, 199. 58 Nancy Sleeth, Almost Amish: One Woman's Quest for a Slower, Simpler, More Sustainable Life (Carol Stream: Tyndale House Publishers, 2012) 204. 59 American Psychological Association. “Marriage and Divorce.” Apa.org. http://www.apa.org/topics/divorce/ (accessed September 2, 2017).

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Fig. 11 - Marian (Old Order Amish), Riehl Farm, August 2017

Fig. 12 - Plowing of Fields, Riehl Farm, August 2017

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Chapter Three: The Moravians Historical Background

The Moravians can trace their history back to John Hus (1369 – 1415), a Czech priest and early

Protestant reformer who fought against the rampant corruption in the Roman Catholic Church. In a letter, Hus described his unease with the Catholic Church:

One pays for confession, for mass, for the sacrament, for indulgences, for churching a woman, for a blessing, for burials, for funeral services and prayers. The very last penny which an old woman has hidden in her bundle for fear of thieves or robbery will not be saved. The villainous priest will grab it.60

In response, the Catholic Council of Constance burned Hus at the stake in 1415. Forty years later in

1457, Hus’s followers (), found asylum near the - border.61 The group named themselves Unitas Fratrum and by 1517, the group’s membership had grown to 200,000 members.62 As the population increased, so did the wrath of Holy Roman Emperors, Ferdinand I and Ferdinand II who ordered troops to seek out and eliminate every Moravian sanctuary. By 1621, two-thirds of the

Moravian population fled to neighboring Protestant countries. Those who stayed were forced into hiding, knowing if they were discovered they’d be tortured and killed.

In 1722, Lutheran religious reformer opened his estate named “” in

Saxony, Germany to the Moravian refugees. According to Fredric Klees, Zinzendorf fixated on some of the “more dubious features of the Moravian religion,” and developed his own particular theories on religious subject matter, which generated concern among his fellow Lutherans.

The emphasis on Christ’s sacrificial death, the blood atonement, moved him deeply. Like many other Moravians, both at Herrnhut and later at Bethlehem, he dwelt upon the blood of the wounds of Christ with too exuberant a fancy. To other Protestants much of this extravagance seemed fantastic and even shocking. The language of love when applied to Christ seemed both irreverent and in bad taste. When Zinzendorf likened the true Christian’s relation to Christ to that which exists in marriage; when he declared that

60 Josef Macek, The Hussite Movement in Bohemia (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1965) 16. 61 Joseph Edmund Hutton, The History of the Moravians (Morrisville: Lulu Press, 2016) 29. (A public domain re-print of Hutton’s original book, published 1909.) 62 Klees, The Pennsylvania Dutch, 92.

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all souls, which he described as essentially female, were married to a ‘conjugal Lord Jesus’; when he insisted that the relationship between Christ and the saved soul was the most intimate possible in all human relationships, most Protestants were genuinely puzzled. 63

Zinzendorf’s surprising theories did not end with blood atonement and the feminization of all church congregants. He also feverishly studied the Bible, Protestant church doctrine and Confession of Faith documents and concluded that all Protestant churches should form a united, co-operative church.

Zinzendorf’s assessment of the church is summarized in following stanza of his , Flock of Jesus, Be

United:

Christian hearts, in love united, Seek alone in Jesus rest; Has he not your love excited? Then let love inspire each breast; Members - on our Head depending, Light - reflecting him our Sun, Brethren - his commands attending, We in him, our Lord, are one.64

This progressive proposal aggravated and mystified the Lutheran Church, whose doctrine promoted a separate and distinctive church, not a complaisant amalgamation. Consequently, the Saxon government, comprising guilds, aristocracy and the Lutheran Church, expelled Zinzendorf and his Moravian refuges from their retreat. Although the expulsion was revoked in 1737, the banishment offered Zinzendorf time to develop what would prove to be the Moravian Church’s defining strategy: the expansion of its nascent international work into America.

In 1741, after a false start in Savannah, , the Moravians relocated to Pennsylvania where they purchased 500 acres of land “where the Monocacy Creek meets the Lehigh River.”65 The Moravians split the land and named two cities, Bethlehem and Nazareth, with Bethlehem being the religious center

63 Klees, The Pennsylvania Dutch. 93-94. 64 Nola Knouse, The Music of the Moravian Church in America. (Rochester: University Rochester Press, 2008) 64. 65 Craig D. Atwood, Community of the Cross: Moravian Piety in Colonial Bethlehem. (State College: Penn State Press, 2010) 116.

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and the fields of Nazareth providing food for the congregants.66 67 One year later in 1742, Zinzendorf began to send ships full of Moravians, named the “Sea Congregation” (See-Gemeinen) to America.

Compared to the harrowing voyages experienced by previous German immigrants, “only one of the 830

Moravian immigrants (0.1 percent) died” during the voyage.”68 The Moravian migration was a well- ordered operation, with boat schematics based on gender and marital status, pre-planned transportation to the Lehigh Valley and most importantly, established settlers who welcomed the migrants to their new home.

The methodical way in which the Moravian migrants were transported to America carried into the development and organization of Bethlehem. The city was divided into two sections: the pilgrim community (Pilgergemeine) and the home community (Hausgemeine). According to Moravian minister and archivist Joseph Mortimer Levering, the pilgrims “were to devote themselves to evangelistic work among Indians and white people, adults and children” and the home community was expected to

“develop the material resources, erect buildings” and care for the pilgrims.69 Taking order and organization one step further, Zinzendorf organized the entire community into “choir systems,” or separate assemblies comprised of Little Boys, Little Girls, Older Boys, Older Girls, Single Brothers, Single

Sisters, Married Brothers, Married Sisters, Widowers, and Widows.

In order to stay focused on their religious goals, all adult men and women slept, ate, worked and worshipped in separate choir buildings. Marriages were chosen by lot so that “man was able to blame

66 The small Moravian settlement in Savannah had at most, 41 immigrants and converts. Quarreling, communal living, lack of cooperation, and other internal problems drove many individuals away from Georgia: either back to Europe or into Pennsylvania. See: New Georgia Encyclopedia. “Moravians.” georgiaencyclopedia.org. http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/moravians (accessed September 17, 2017). 67 Atwood, Community of the Cross: Moravian Piety in Colonial Bethlehem, 116. 68 Aaron Spencer Fogleman, Hopeful Journeys : German Immigration, Settlement, and Political Culture in Colonial America, 1717-1775 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996) 126. 69 Joseph Mortimer Levering, A History of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 1741-1892 (Bethlehem: Times Publishing Company, 1903) 10.

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God for the choice of his wife rather than take the blame himself.”70 Once married, men and women met once a week for a “marriage quarter hourlie” (Eheviertelstunden), at a time picked by the “curator”

(Caplainen) and a double bed chosen by the “bed master” (Bettmeister).71 If the married couple reproduced, the mother was expected to breastfeed the child for one year. Once weaned, parental custody was released to the Single Sisters choir, which took control of the child’s care. As the children grew, worship services imparted age-appropriate stories concerning the life of Jesus.72 Upon transition to new choirs, elaborate ceremonies were held where the children were given new, colored “choir ribbons” (Haubes) which were expected to be visible around the collar, neck or cap.

Zinzendorf’s choir system was intended to create an equitable, tightly knit community through the foundation of small, cohesive groups who shared a common mission and prepared members to be

“ready to answer the call to mission work” at any time.73 But, as Aaron Fogleman, author of Jesus Is

Female: Moravians and Radical Religion in Early America points out, Zinzendorf’s framework had

“sinister implications for family life and patriarchal authority” in the Moravian community.74 By separating each family member from one another, the system effectively produced detached individuals, devoid of familial regard typically fostered in nuclear families.

Nonetheless, the choir system provided Moravian women an unprecedented amount of autonomy and power.75 As Beverly Smaby asserts, gendered roles within the Moravian community

“were much more symmetrical than in any other colonial society,” allowing women to serve as spiritual

70 Klees, The Pennsylvania Dutch, 113. 71 Aaron Spencer Fogleman, Jesus Is Female: Moravians and Radical Religion in Early America (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014) 94. 72 For instance, young girls would learn about Jesus as a child and older girls would learn that Jesus was their spiritual husband. 73 Atwood, Community of the Cross: Moravian Piety in Colonial Bethlehem, 175. 74 Fogleman, Jesus Is Female: Moravians and Radical Religion in Early America, 90. 75 Jean R. Soderlund, Catherine S. Parzynski, Backcountry Crucibles: The Lehigh Valley from Settlement to Steel (Plainsboro: Associated University Presse, 2008) 90.

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leaders, choir elders, acolytes, , international and members of councils.76 Even more, women served as ministers (Priesterinnen) and by 1758, a total of 27 women were formally ordained by the Moravian bishop.77

As in all congregations of God’s people, women should keep silent at the meeting. They have no permission to talk, but should keep their place as the law directs. If there is something they want to know, they can ask their husbands at home. It is a shocking thing for a woman to talk at the meeting. - 1 Corinthians 14: 34-35 78

Not surprisingly, Moravian female leadership positions offended other Protestant churches who cited

Corinthians (above), which contends women have no speaking rights in church. Zinzendorf argued that if the Moravians were to adhere to this particular scripture, the Single Sisters, who’ve enjoyed “ten to twenty years” of responsibility in their choir would simply say, “No, thank you” to marriage. If that were to happen, Zinzendorf continued, “there would be few new marriages.”79

Alas, Zinzendorf’s fears came true. In 1754, due to an unbalanced sex ratio and female disinterest in marriage, there was only one single woman for every seven single men in Bethlehem.80

Facing a crisis point, the Moravian leadership was forced to open its doors to the outside world, allowing marriages between Moravians and non-Moravians. The decision on marriage, along with other negative socio-economic trends within the community prompted a slow dissolution of the choir system in

Bethlehem. In 1841, the last Moravian choir disbanded and its members quietly integrated into

Bethlehem’s local community. As of today, the Bethlehem Moravians are fully homogenized, indistinguishable from mainstream society.

76 Beverly Prior Smaby, The Transformation of Moravian Bethlehem from Communal Mission to Family Economy (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989), 13. 77 Beverly Prior Smaby, “Female Piety Among Eighteenth Century Moravians.” Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies Vol. 64 (1997) 151-167. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27774057. 78 The Revised English Bible, 157. 79 Soderlund, Parzynski, Backcountry Crucibles: The Lehigh Valley from Settlement to Steel, 92. 80 Gillian Lindt Gollin, “Family Surrogates in Colonial America: The Moravian Experiment.” Journal of Marriage and Family, Vol. 31, No. 4 (1969): 650-658. http://www.jstor.org/stable/349305.

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Moravian Church

The modern Moravian Church is considered a “mainline” Protestant Church and has nearly

40,000 members in the United States.81 Moravian doctrine and worship is similar to the Lutheran,

Methodist and Presbyterian churches, with some differences in communion frequency and method of baptism. The Moravian Church in the United States is divided into two (Northern and Southern) provinces, governed by “,” who meet once every four years. Community churches are governed by elders, individually elected by each congregation. Moravian leadership also includes deacons, presbyters and a bishop, who attends the entire church.

Despite the move away from the choir system, Bethlehem’s Central Moravian Church continued its local outreach through tradition. Every year, the church builds an elaborate “putz” (an extra-large manger scene), places a candle in every window and illuminates the on South

Mountain. Although small, these events have become widely popular and draw in a large number of people from surrounding communities. The most notable Moravian tradition is the Love Feast, a community gathering which takes place after Pentecost and is based on the ancient Christian “agape” meal.82 The event is intended to bring people of all denominations together, sing songs and break bread

(sugar cake) together. As Martha Bourlakas, author of Love Feast: Together at the Table explains, the

Love Feast is a “celebration connecting humans with each other so that for a few minutes, we may see

Christ in each other.”83 These inclusive Moravian traditions carry into church as well. In sharp contrast with the Anabaptist sects, the Moravians baptize individuals at any age (requires profession of faith) by the pouring of water over the head. Moreover, the Moravian communion is presented to anyone, from any religion, who has professed Christ as their Savior.

81 To learn more about mainline churches, see: Green, John. “Evangelicals v. Mainline Protestants.” PBS.org. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/jesus/evangelicals/evmain.html (accessed October 13, 2017). 82 In the , “agape” refers to God’s love for humans, the reciprocal human love for God and the love of one's fellow man. 83 Martha Johnson Bourlakas, Love Feast: Together at the Table (New York: Church Publishing, 2016) 6.

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Bethlehem, PA

In early September 2017, I contacted Historic Bethlehem and spoke to Kristen Walsh, Director of

Visitor Services and Community Outreach. I described my project and told her I was hoping to interview an active Moravian who grew up in the local community. Kristen said, “Well, you’ve found the right person!” She disclosed she was one of only two practicing Moravians in the entire organization and would be happy to speak with me. We set the interview for Friday, September 15th in downtown

Bethlehem at her office.

Although I’ve only been to Bethlehem a handful of times, the city holds a special place in my heart. After returning from serving in the Vietnam War, my father worked at Bethlehem Steel in southern Bethlehem. He worked as a “second helper” in the open hearth furnace, a physically punishing position given to inexperienced, non-unionized men who are able and willing to perform hot labor work.

My father was in charge of shovel feeding the front of the furnace with alloys, pouring molten steel into ingots and re-bricking hot ladles. He wore an asbestos heavy suit and wooden shoes so his shoes wouldn’t melt. The temperature outside the furnaces never dropped below 110 degrees. Despite these challenging conditions, my father described Bethlehem Steel as a much-needed lifeline for our family.

His job offered a secure, recurring paycheck that put food on the table, money for my father’s college education and a down payment for our first house. At its peak, Bethlehem Steel employed nearly 30,000 local people. One can only imagine how many families like ours the mill may have helped.

The closing of Bethlehem Steel was a difficult and protracted process which devastated the local economy and community morale. Over the course of twenty years, the plant continually lowered salaries, cut pensions and laid off thousands of employees in order to stay afloat. As a result, families filed for bankruptcy, filed for foreclosure on their homes and local employees moved away to look for

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new work. When Bethlehem Steel finally closed its doors in 1995, the sense of helplessness and frustration in the Lehigh Valley was palpable.84

While the collapse of the steel mill overwhelmed blue-collar families in southern Bethlehem, the city’s historic district to the north was less disturbed. Situated on top of a hill and overlooking the ruins of the old steel mill below, historic Bethlehem is a tidy, middle to upper-class community. Brick walkways with wrought-iron fences steer visitors and residents safely between museums, galleries, coffee shops, restaurants and historic eighteenth century Zinzendorfian buildings. It’s clear Bethlehem was planned and organized by the meticulous Moravians: the clearly defined roadways all terminate near Central Moravian Church, which regally towers above the neighboring buildings.

I took two trips to Bethlehem, in part due to the fact I didn’t feel as though I adequately captured the essence of the northern Bethlehem community. While it’s certainly possible I visited on two low activity days, it’s seems more likely that historic Bethlehem is simply singularly focused: its primary mission is to inform visitors about the history of the Moravians, not necessarily the modern local community. Further, unlike the Old Order Amish and Mennonite sects, the Moravians are considered mainstream, and as a result, less visually distinctive than the Old Order Anabaptists.

With this in mind, I decided to focus my attention on the Moravian cemetery, which Francis

Klees described as an “eighteenth century melting pot.” 85 The Moravians, unlike many other colonists, saw all people as human beings and welcomed anybody who professed their faith into the church.86 The

Moravians were egalitarians and as a result, buried every congregant, including Native Americans and

African Americans together by choir group and date of death, not family units. In addition, every burial

84 Bethlehem Steel closed its doors on October 20, 1995 after roughly 140 years of production. 85 Klees, The Pennsylvania Dutch, 111. 86 However, recent reports suggest the Moravian Church purchased three dozen slaves in the city’s first twenty years. See: Griffin, Brandon. “Professor discusses history of in Bethlehem.” http://thebrownandwhite.com. http://thebrownandwhite.com/2016/04/24/slaves-in-bethlehem (accessed October 9, 2017).

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plot has a similarly sized “breaststone” rather than headstone, to denote the “equality of all in the eyes of the Lord.”87

While photographing the unconventional cemetery, I noticed the streets around me were filling with groups of senior citizens walking downhill, converging at Central Moravian Church and methodically lining up outside the church’s four doors. When I asked what was going on, one of the ladies enthusiastically responded, “the Bach Choir is playing at noon!” The Bach Choir formed at the fin- de-siècle (1898) and is considered to be one of the finest choral groups in the world. As the massive doors opened and the music enthusiasts pushed their way inside, one women said “come back to see the Christmas celebrations!” As the sound of a harpsichord eerily boomed up the street, I felt slightly more intrigued by this quirky town and looked forward to learning more about its peculiar history.

87 Klees, The Pennsylvania Dutch, 111.

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Fig. 13 - Bethlehem Steel, Bethlehem PA, September 2017

Fig. 14 - Moravian Cemetery, Bethlehem PA, September 2017

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Interview

Kristen and I sat down at the Historic Bethlehem office around 10:00am. She seemed ready and enthusiastic about answering questions about the Moravian community. She said, “I'm such a sucker for it because whenever people come in here, I'll be back here working, then someone come in and say,

‘What can you tell me about the Moravians here today?’ I’m like, ‘Let me tell you!’ I'm so happy because people just don't think Moravians exist anymore.” Kristen and I spoke for nearly two hours.

Kristen grew up in Hellertown, “just on the other side of the mountain.” She described her childhood as full of “fun and games” with her “rowdy” brothers. She explained she was “of that age and generation where we had the world without terrorism and… it was quiet and you don’t realize anything until you grow up and then you’re like, ‘oh gosh.’” Kristen went to public school for K-12 and completed her Master’s degree with a thesis which argued, “the Revolutionary War was the turning point for the end of the [Moravian] community here.” In addition to her full-time job at Historic Bethlehem, Kristen enjoys baking, watching British television shows and reading “time-travel romance novels.” Kristen also started the sewing company “Vivian’s Desk,” named after her grandmother, which sells purses online and at craft shows. Kristen stated,

I like to sew. My grandmother taught me. She’s the Moravian. Mostly because, as she got older, she needed help threading the machine and fixing bobbins and stuff. So then, she started showing me little things here and there. Then I really got into it, and then once she passed away, my aunt gave me all of her sewing stuff. She said, ‘you’re the only one who knows how to do any of this.’

Sewing and needlework was considered an essential skill in the early Moravian community. The

Moravian curriculum incorporated female stitching instruction to produce “well-bred young ladies” who would need sewing lessons “for their futures as competent wives and mothers.”88 Today, sewing skills continue to be passed down from elders to young Moravian women who show interest in the craft.

88 Bronner, Brown, Pennsylvania Germans: An Interpretative Encyclopedia, 295.

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Kristen’s family spoke English at home, but her mother “was raised in a German and

Pennsylvania Dutch” household. Her mother’s parents would regularly “discuss things [in German] and the kids had no idea what was going on.” Kristen confessed she retained just one German expression,

“machst du nach der schule,” which means “what are you doing today after school?” Kristen’s lost familial connection to the Pennsylvania Dutch language is not uncommon among the non-sectarian communities of the Lehigh Valley. The primary force behind the language’s decline was the fragmentation of historically Pennsylvania Dutch communities like the Moravians and Lutherans. As

Mark Louden, author of Pennsylvania Dutch: The Story of an American Language explains,

Those speakers who moved ‘up and away,’ that is, pursued higher education, entered the professions, and married non-Pennsylvania Dutch speakers typically stopped using the language regularly, and their children almost always became English monolinguals.89

As a result, some people in the Lehigh Valley regard the Pennsylvania Dutch culture and dialect as a sign of ignorance or inelegance. Kristen shared a fitting story about her grandfather who grew upset when his family did things that might be associated with the Pennsylvania Dutch.

Anytime we’d do anything that was remotely Pennsylvania Dutch in his eyes, he would always say, ‘Don’t be Dutchy!’ (Kristen says this with a loud, distinct PA Dutch accent) And, I mean, especially if we went to dinner and we were at a restaurant…cause my mom’s one of five… so all of the sisters would be like, ‘oh dad, let’s just chip in.’

He’s like ‘DON’T BE DUTCHY! PUT CHYOUR WALLETS AWAY.’ You know, he’d get really mad and just yell. (laughs) And, he also said stuff like, ‘Don’t chyou worry about it.’ So my mom and I do that all the time. Don’t be Dutchy! (laughs)

Kristen was “born and raised in Mountainview Moravian Church” in Hellertown and was baptized as an infant. When asked to describe her church, Kristen lit up. At twenty-four and “fresh out of college,” Kristen was asked to be a church elder at Mountainview. While serving as an elder, Kristen

“got a lot of insight on the behind the scenes [activities] in the church itself,” including understanding

89 Mark L. Louden, Pennsylvania Dutch: The Story of an American Language (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016) xiii.

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the church economy, procedures and congregant retention. She was also asked to lead worship. Kristen had fun with her new role,

I led prayer, I did welcome and announcements, things like that and everyone really got a kick out of it. Our church is small and everyone got a kick out of me. I would say, ‘Okay, everyone please rise for the singing of the hymn. This is a lot of power because you guys are listening to me. Everyone sit down. Now everyone settle down. Now, you guys sit down. Now, you guys stand up.’ We all got a kick out of it.

Kristen is proud of the church’s ability to evolve over the years and encourage an inclusive, tolerant community where “everyone is welcome.” Despite enormous pressure from the other churches to reign in women’s liberties over the centuries, the Moravian church has stayed true to its original mission. Kristen described one of the most meaningful experiences as a female Moravian elder,

There was a woman, she was the head of, I think it was the World Board of Missions, and she was in an openly gay relationship. I remember that and being like, ‘Yes, we are so awesome!’ Not only is she a woman, but she's in an openly gay relationship and in this massively high position in the church, and everyone supports her. That was really neat. So yes, being an elder was interesting. It was just little things, but when that came up that was a big deal. I was glad to be a part of that.

As a child, Kristen participated in the church’s Youth Fellowship program which helped people in need by building houses or a “wheelchair ramp for a woman who hadn't left her house in years.” She stressed,

Most of these were retreats that were made of many denominations. That was one of the biggest things in the Moravian church is this ecumenical movement that we all believe in the same thing. A lot of our stuff in the youth group really instilled that too, and I didn't realize it until later on.

The Moravians practice of is based on Zinzendorf’s philosophy that all Christian churches should cooperate with one another. Kristen described the ecumenical movement,

I think they call it ‘in communion’ with several denominations... the Lutherans, the Methodists. We do pulpit exchanges and there's this great work between these churches. You can have a communion in a Lutheran church and it counts towards your Moravian communion. So you can attend other churches and it's still perfectly fine. Even as a Catholic, and you were to come into the Moravian church, you absolutely can have communion, and you can partake in whatever you want because as long as you believe in our father and his son or something, I forget what they say.

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But everyone is welcome in the Moravian Church. That's one thing I love about it. A lot of churches don't like that, at least they didn't back in the day. Many still don't, and it's unique.

The Moravian Church takes ecumenism seriously. On April 14, 2011, Central Moravian Church in

Bethlehem made the news for hosting one thousand Episcopalians, Lutherans and Moravians to celebrate its full communion partnership. The event was the first of its kind and indicative of the fundamental changes occurring in Protestant churches in the face of waning interest, declining parishes and aging congregants. Known as “Emergence ,” Christian groups like the Moravians are embracing the liturgical elements which unite one other, rather than separate each another.90

Kristen believes strongly in the Moravians motto, “In Essentials Unity, in Non-essentials Liberty and in All Things, Love,” and even included it in her wedding vows. Although used by other religious groups such as the and the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, the Moravians use the motto to emphasize what is most important in the church: love, faith and unity. Kristen described how the motto fits into her everyday life,

I take it just as my life's motto. During our vows I said, ‘In essentials unity, raising our children together, deciding on what pizza we want to order for dinner.’ Like we'll do all of that together. Then in non-essentials liberty, I said something like, ‘He plays in musical bands. I'll never play in a musical band but I'll always support him playing in those bands.’ That kind of thing. I just love that motto. You can see it in the church itself.

I actually just recently saw a woman who left the church when we said that it was okay for pastors in openly gay relationship. Just recently saw her a couple weeks ago. She said something to me like, ‘Oh, you probably don't like me because I left’. I'm like, ‘Listen, you know how the Moravian Church is. We're going to love you forever. Whether you like the ideas of the church or not, you're still a wonderful human being and we wish you the best and hope that you have it wherever you are. You're always welcome to back whenever you want. Even for a visit to say ‘hi.’ I never see any hard feelings or anything in the church.

When asked what was more important, religion, tradition or community, Kristen responded,

I think the tradition, because you can get religion anywhere. There's no, really, next to no difference which mean our church and what you hear in a Lutheran church and what

90 Phil Snider, The Hyphenateds: How Emergence Christianity is Re-Traditioning Mainline Practices (St. Louis: Chalice Press, 2011) xiii.

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you hear in a Methodist church, but the tradition is where it changes. So you're not ‘gonna have Love Feasts at a Lutheran church. And you have communion every Sunday in a Lutheran church, whereas ours, maybe like six or seven times a year. I think, to me, the tradition is what makes the Moravian church the way it is.

In addition to making the church unique, distinctively Moravian traditions such as the Putz and Love

Feast draw much-needed attention to this small community. Kristen admitted that her home church

Mountainview, “is dying out,” and after a cursory review of Pennsylvania’s Moravian population, I realized her church is not alone. According to the U.S. Religion Census data from 1980 to 2010, the

Moravian community has decreased every decade and in every county within southeastern

Pennsylvania.91

You can literally say, ‘I'm one in a million.’ -Kristen Walsh

Unlike the Anabaptist sects, the Moravians can’t necessarily rely on familial ties to continually refresh the church. The communal Moravian settlement was at its peak in the eighteenth century and since then, the community has fully integrated into the mainstream. Factors such as higher education, marriages and geographical movement contributed to the weakening of the Moravian culture and community. In addition, due to its small size and isolated geographical location, the Moravians of

Bethlehem are inconspicuous and often misunderstood – even in the local community. Kristen recalled,

I can remember going giving tours and we get to the part where people live and I tell people, ‘Look, this is where they live,’ and people are like, ‘Well, they don't exist anymore, right? They're not here anymore.’ I'm like, ‘I'm Moravian.’ They're like, ‘Whoa. Did you grow up with your family?’

Accordingly, when asked “How do you see the community in the future?” Kristen aptly responded,

“As a whole, I see the Moravian church remaining as it is, small, not large or anything. But I see it

91 Association of Religious Data Archives. “Moravian Church in America--Northern Province Counties.” THEARDA.com. http://www.thearda.com/ql2010/QL_C_ALL_2_1117c.asp (accessed October 10, 2017).

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remaining steadfast in the communities it's in.” For Kristen and this interesting community with such a rich history, I hope her prediction proves to be true.

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Fig. 15 - Kristen (Moravian), Bethlehem PA, September 2017

Fig. 16 - Moravian Tour Guide, Bethlehem PA, September 2017

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Chapter Four: The Lutherans Historical Background

In 1517, (1483-1546) published his “Ninety-five Theses,” shaming the practice of indulgences and challenging the Catholic Church’s supremacy in Central Europe. In response, the

Catholic Church excommunicated Luther, who continued to write and publish influential religious tracts while in hiding. In 1730, several German princes and reformers presented articles of faith known as “The

Augsburg Confession” to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. The articles listed twenty-one tenets and teachings in order to illustrate the Catholic and Lutheran church’s shared objectives. Seven articles appended to the end of the document listed the Lutheran Church’s “antitheses statements,” which corrected perceived abuses in the Catholic Church. Anticipating a potentially violent backlash from the

Catholic Church, the German princes developed a military alliance known as the “Schmalkaldic League.”

Charles V waited until 1547 (one year after Luther’s death) to wage war on the Schmalkaldic

League. Though the princes were defeated at the Battle of Mühlberg, support for Lutheran churches continued to grow. Foreseeing an endless political impasse, Charles formally acknowledged the Lutheran

Church in 1555. Known as the “Peace of Augsburg,” Charles accepted the principle, “Cuius regio, eius religio” a Latin term meaning "whose realm, his religion," thereby enabling rulers to determine regional religions. The principle worked in the favor of Lutherans in the Protestant north, but inflamed political and religious hostilities in the predominantly Catholic Rhineland region. Over time, small aggressions escalated into the Thirty Years War (1618 – 1648) and the War of the Palatinate (1688-1697), which resulted in the death of eight million Europeans and left the Palatinate in ruins.92

It was against this backdrop that several thousand German Lutherans set sail for New York in the early 1700’s. As described in the section, The Pennsylvania Dutch: Historical Overview, many immigrants were indentured against their will and a large majority were German Lutherans. Once docked in New

92 Peter Wilson, The Thirty Years War: Europe's Tragedy (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2009) 4.

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York, British-born Governor Robert Hunter forced the men who couldn’t pay voyage fees to make tar for the British Navy and their children were “bound out to English farmers.”93 Those who weren’t forced into slavery attempted to purchase land along the Hudson River from the Native Americans however, the land deals were swiftly nullified by Hunter.94 Homeless and weary, the surviving, unbound immigrants accepted the promise of freedom from Governor Keith of Pennsylvania. With the help of

Native Americans, the group travelled southward until they reached Berks County in Pennsylvania. News of the tumult in New York quickly spread to Germany and as a result, German Lutheran migration to

New York “slowed to a trickle.”95 By the 1720’s, a majority of incoming Lutherans chose Pennsylvania to be their new home.

By the mid-1700’s, approximately 100,000 Germans lived in Pennsylvania, nearly one-half of the colony’s total population. 96 60,000 of these settlers were German Lutherans.97 The European Lutheran

Church was woefully unprepared for this massive, unprecedented influx to America. In 1742, there were only three congregations in the state of Pennsylvania, with thousands living “wretchedly without preachers and books.”98 When European Lutheran leaders learned settlers were joining established groups such as the Moravians and Mennonites, they sent German missionary and Pastor Henry

Muhlenberg (1711 – 1787) to bring order to America’s floundering Lutheran congregations.

93 A. G. Roeber, Palatines, Liberty, and Property: German Lutherans in Colonial British America (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998) 11. 94 Juergen Neve, A Brief History of the Lutheran Church in America (Burlington, German Literary Board, 1916) 42. 95 Roeber, Palatines, Liberty, and Property: German Lutherans in Colonial British America, 16. 96 John Frantz. "The Awakening of Religion among the German Settlers in the ." The William and Mary Quarterly 33, no. 2 (1976): 266-88. www.jstor.org/stable/1922165. 97 Jens Christian Roseland, American Lutheran Biographies (Milwaukee: A. Houtkamp and Son, 1890) 267. 98 Clifford Nelson, Lutherans in North America (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1975) 29.

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The history of the (Lutheran) church, from his landing in 1742 to his death at The Trappe, October 7, 1787, is scarcely more than his biography.

- Henry Jacobs on 99

Muhlenberg moved to Trappe, Pennsylvania, a small village in Montgomery County. Within one month, he was preaching and making missionary trips to rural counties where he held services in open fields, barns and living rooms. According to Reverend W. J. Mann of the Evangelical Lutheran Theological

Seminary, Muhlenberg was man who practiced “a warm-hearted, devout, active, practical

Lutheranism.”100 Muhlenberg had seven churches and schools built, drawing the scattered Lutheran masses to centralized churches across southeastern Pennsylvania. In 1748, Muhlenberg organized the

“,” which unified the state’s seven congregations, established a common liturgy and set the as the church’s principle Confession of Faith. Muhlenberg’s

Ministerium served as a directive for new Lutheran conferences, congregations and pastors until 1918.

Lutheran Church

Today, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) has over three million baptized members and sixty-five assemblies (synods).101 Over time, the size and scale of the church prompted the question: who is in charge of the Lutheran Church? Does the power rest in the individual congregations or the main church organization? ECLA responded tactfully, explaining the Lutheran Church “derives its character and powers both from its inherent nature as an expression of the broader fellowship of the faithful.”102 Consequently, the modern Lutheran Church allows regional churches the freedom to serve

99 Henry Jacobs, A History of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the United States (New York: Christian Literature Company, 1893.) 305. 100 J. Frederick Smith, Free Lutheran Diet in America (Philadelphia: J. Frederick Smith Publishing, 1878), 283. 101 ELCA. “ELCA Facts” elca.org. https://www.elca.org/News-and-Events/ELCA-Facts (accessed October 31, 2017). 102 John Reumann, Muhlenberg's Ministerium, Ben Franklin's Deism, and the Churches of the 21st Century: Reflections on the 250th Anniversary of the Oldest Lutheran Body in North America (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2011) 19.

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an increasingly diverse, ever-changing church body. While some church services emphasize conventional

Lutheran liturgical ceremonies and traditions, other churches exercise freer, more “contemporary” forms of worship such as pub services or the singing of Beatles songs rather than traditional hymns.

Over the past several decades, historically marginalized groups such as women and individuals who identify as LGBTQ have been formally acknowledged by the Lutheran Church. In 1970, women were given the opportunity to be ordained in the Lutheran Church and as of today, there are nine female bishops in ECLA. Most notably, ECLA’s current presiding bishop is a woman. In addition, ECLA formally passed a 1991 resolution which authorized LGBTQ membership and allowed individual ministers and congregations to decide on same-sex marriage. In 2010, the church allowed the ordainment of LGBTQ ministers. Unsurprisingly, many of these decisions have angered conservative members who believe the original policies are scripturally justified. Consequently, dissenting members formed a new Lutheran church body, the North American Lutheran Church (NALC).

Trappe, PA

After learning about Muhlenberg and his dedication to the Germans of southeastern

Pennsylvania, I decided to contact his church, the Augustus Lutheran Church (1745) in Trappe. After describing the project to a church representative, I was put in touch with Jennifer Wentworth, a member of the Augustus Church choir and chair of the church committee. Jennifer and I conducted the interview over the phone and met face-to-face on Sunday, September 24th at the morning church service for follow-up questions.

Trappe is a small, quaint town with historic homes, church steeples, American flags and one primary road, Main Street. The Augustus Lutheran Church sits back on a massive, grassy lot shaded by oak trees and demarcated with a gray stone perimeter wall. Passing underneath the wide, wrought-iron church sign, I made my way down the long walkway toward the welcoming committee. They handed me

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a service bulletin and I quietly followed several parishioners to the second floor. As we rose up the steps, a calming blue hue projected from the stained glass windows, which served as a reminder that I was a guest inside a somber house of worship. Down the red carpeted hallway, I spotted Jennifer, the youngest member of the choir group, who was wearing a white robe and preparing to enter the chapel.

Minutes later, the choir streamed through the middle of the chapel and into the choir box, singing the hymn, When Morning Gilds the Skies.

There were approximately forty people in attendance. A majority of the pews were empty, which made the presence of an outsider more conspicuous. Pastor Weleck, in a grass green robe looked out to the audience and said, “I want to welcome our visitor here today.” He continued, announcing the sermon’s theme, “Is God fair?” and proclaimed “In the presence of God’s mercy, we are all beggars.”

Using one of the Bible’s most controversial parables, he presented a story about a landowner who paid all of his laborers the same daily wage, no matter what time they arrived. When the laborers who arrived early complained, the landowner argued,

Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous? So the last will be first and the first will be last.103

The parable, while antithetical to what most Americans are taught at home or at secular public schools, reveals a fundamental principle of the church: congregants must resign themselves to God.

The service carried on. We stood, we sang, we sat down. My lack of experience with the

Lutheran worship ritual became more and more noticeable. At one point, a woman with two young children seated in front of me turned and asked, “Are you from here?” When I told her I lived nearby she excitedly asked, “Are you thinking about joining the church?” She described some of the church’s family-friendly events, its excellent Sunday school program and handed me a Sunday school brochure.

103 Edited passage was presented in the Augustus Lutheran Church Bulletin, September 24, 2017. Original passage can be found in Matthew 20: Oxford University Press, The Revised English Bible, 18.

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As she spoke, we spotted an older female congregant peering across the pews at us, clearly irritated by our discussion during the sermon.

The time for communion came and although I prepared to sit it out, a church official tip-toed down the aisle and whispered in my ear, “Would you like to take communion?” After some back and forth, I relented and made my way to the front of the church. Kneeling side-by-side with the other parishioners, I began to appreciate the importance of religious ritual in the church. The pastor’s sermon, communion and singing of hymns serve to encourage interest and attendance, but they also provide a fulfilling, shared experience which inculcates a sense of community and moral responsibility among the congregants.

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Fig. 17 - Lutheran Service, Trappe PA, September 2017

Fig. 18 - Couple Walking to Lutheran Service, Trappe PA, September 2017

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Interview

Jennifer is thirty-one years old and grew up just outside Trappe in Royersford, Pennsylvania. In her spare time, she reads historical fiction books, walks her seven-month-old coonhound and playfully added, “Once a month I bowl very badly.” She attended public high school, received a Master’s degree in secondary education and until recently, had a full-time teaching job at Immanuel Lutheran Church in

Philadelphia. Jennifer is currently taking care of her ninety-year-old grandfather, dispensing his medicine and “making sure he’s up and functioning.” In addition to caring for her grandfather, Jennifer is the chair of the Augustus Lutheran Church committee.

Jennifer stated, “I actually grew up in the church, so I was baptized there.” When asked about her childhood, she explained her early life was “unusual, in the sense that I had stay-at-home dad instead of a stay-at-home mom,” but mainly because her “mom got very, very sick” when she was in

Kindergarten. Jennifer recalled, “The community really rallied around us. The church prayed for us and they did food drives and bone marrow blood tests in the community.” In the years following her mother’s illness, Jennifer joined the children’s choir, children’s bell choir, eventually graduating to the adult groups which, as Jennifer put it, “kind of kept me here. I'm always here.” When I asked what draws her to church, she explained,

The music is what brings me out. I like worshiping that way and singing pieces that sometimes we sing Gospel, but sometimes we sing traditional classical pieces like Mozart, or we are singing Hayden in a couple of weeks. That is what keeps me coming back. I like to sing those kind of pieces and I like having that choir experience.

And then, when I get really lucky there's a piece that I get like this tingly feeling, and I just feel at peace at that moment. It just keeps me coming back, and doing it again and again. If I wasn’t drawn into the music as a kid, I don’t think I’d come back as much now.

Accordingly, when asked how important the church is in her life she answered, “at least an eight or nine” out of ten and dedicates a large portion of her private time to the church.

I used to teach Sunday school, I help out and teach at the Vacation Bible School. And then when I became chair of the old church committee, I started giving tours and

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dealing with genealogy requests and doing those kinds of things. I'm in the book club at church now that I'm not teaching full time, I can go back to quilting during the day.

Jennifer creates “practical quilts” with “The Women of ELCA,” a group which provides services to local and international communities in need. Needlework, as evidenced by the testimonies of the other women in this project, is one of the hallmarks of the Pennsylvania Dutch culture which has been passed down from generation to generation for several hundred years. In Jennifer’s case, her mother taught her the “basic quilting stich,” but it was her great-grandmother’s “sample block, which she used to sample out the quilt squares” which reinforced her interest in the craft.

According to Francis Klees, “nowhere in America except in the early art of the Spanish

Southwest was there folk art comparable to that of the Pennsylvania Dutch.”104 The fancy Dutch love color and decoration so intensely, the art form is regularly described as “gaudy” and “tacky.” Most distinctive among the arts of the Pennsylvania Dutch is the hex sign, which was brought to southeastern

Pennsylvania by German Lutheran and Reformed settlers. Known as “ art,” hex sign motifs and symbols such as the stylized heart, geometric star and distlefinks were drawn onto German birth certificates, marriage licenses and books. The immigrants of southeastern Pennsylvania expanded this practice to everyday items such as furniture, blankets and most notably, on the exterior of their new

American barns and churches.105

Jennifer said she is “proud” of her German ancestry, loves “sauerbraten and spätzle” and “took four years of German because I have that German background.” After conducting genealogy research, she determined that she was “¾ German” and elaborated, “both sides of my family have a connection to the Pennsylvania Dutch.” Jennifer explained English was the primary language spoken at home, however her family members spoke both German and Pennsylvania Dutch.

104 Klees, The Pennsylvania Dutch, 372. 105 Patrick Donmoyer, Hex Signs: Myth and Meaning in Pennsylvania Dutch Barn Stars (Morgantown: Masthof Press, 2013) 55.

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My mother took German. My great-grandmother on my mom’s side did speak Pennsylvania Dutch and my grandmother knew a little but she never spoke it to us. Although every now and then, my grandfather – he’s ninety – and I live with him, he sometimes uses one German word. “Unternassen,” it means ‘nothin’ or ‘nothing’s wrong.’ My grandmother died when I was in high school, so I was never at the age where I appreciated it and wanted her to teach me some of it. I would now. You know?

Jennifer’s experience with the Pennsylvania Dutch language parallels that of many families in southeastern Pennsylvania, including my own. As stated earlier, factors such as higher education, marriage and increased mobility diluted the Pennsylvania Dutch language, which resulted in more

English monolingual families in the various fancy Dutch communities.

However, there is an ongoing scholarly debate concerning whether or not the language’s decline was also prompted by anti-German sentiment in America between and II. Author and skeptic Mark Louden concedes that in 1918, “actions were taken to ban or curtail the instruction of

German in Pennsylvania schools, including in the Dutch Country,” and “some Pennsylvania Dutch were forced to kiss an American flag in public,” but argues these particular events “had little impact on the use of Pennsylvania Dutch in rural communities.”106 Interestingly, Louden’s book overlooks the violence against and internment of German-

Americans which took place across the

United States during both wars, and what impact these actions may have had on the overall German American psyche.107

Yet, local Pennsylvania Dutch residents contend American xenophobia

Fig. 19 - Library of Congress: Anti-German Sign, 1917

106 Louden, Pennsylvania Dutch: The Story of an American Language, 254-256. 107 People known for “pro German activities” faced mob persecution that sometimes resulted in tar and feathering, whipping, and public humiliation.

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between the wars compelled them to repress their native language and lie about their ethnicity in public. Lynn Boyer, a resident from Berks County asserted, “If you sounded like a German, they thought you were a Nazi. So we tried to cover our accents.”108 In his book, A Pennsylvania Dutch Boy: And The

Truth About The Pennsylvania Dutch, Merritt Yorgey testified, “Pennsylvania Germans began denying their German ancestry during those years between approximately 1910 and 1945,” and further disclosed that his father told him, “Don’t ever call yourself Dutch or Pennsylvania German. Just say you’re an

American.”109 Regardless of which side of this debate is correct, both scenarios suggest a period marked by mounting American patriotism and consequently, heightened anxiety about the Pennsylvania Dutch language, culture and identity in the 1900’s.

When asked if there was anything she would change about the community, Jennifer said she wished the church community was more diverse.

I mean, it'd be nice to see a little more diversity. Because now I've worked in the city (Philadelphia) and compared to that… no, it’s not diverse here. We just had a discussion in book club actually, sort of on this subject with the book we read. One of the women in the book club adopted children from Central America, and she was warned, ‘don’t take your kids to this particular area’. And sure enough, they went there one time and the people at the restaurant didn't want to serve them. So there are still pockets of prejudice and racism even out here. So, it would be nice if there was a little more diversity.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s 2017 Intelligence Report, Pennsylvania is the fifth most active state in the country for white supremacist and hate groups. While a majority of the groups reside in western and north-central Pennsylvania, there are a number of hate groups in Philadelphia,

Lancaster, Berks and Lehigh Counties, to name a few. Over the past year, two notable events occurred in

108 Penn State University. “Death of the Dutchy?” psu.edu. http://pabook2.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/PADutch.html (accessed October 31, 2017). 109 Merritt Yorgey, A Pennsylvania Dutch Boy: And The Truth About The Pennsylvania Dutch (Bloomington: Xlibris, 2008) 17.

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southeastern Pennsylvania which sparked protests and drew the attention of news outlets.110 Yet, despite the geographical location of these events, there is no evidence which connects Pennsylvania’s hate groups with the Lutheran Church or the greater Pennsylvania Dutch community.

Jennifer is not alone in hoping for a more diverse church community. A recent study of 1,007

Protestant pastors revealed that eighty-five percent believe “every church should strive for racial diversity.” However, ninety-one percent of those surveyed also think churches “should reflect the racial diversity in their community.”111 As of 2015, eighty-five percent of Trappe’s residents are white.112 In the cities surrounding Trappe, racial diversity is similarly low. Additionally, the Lutheran Church (ELCA) is the second least racially diverse church in the United States (ninety-six percent white).113 Therefore, racial diversity in rural Pennsylvanian churches, especially long-standing churches like Augustus Lutheran

Church, will not be an easy task. In spite of this, ELCA recently recommitted to a 1993 Social Statement which pledged to increase the church’s minority membership to ten percent. 114

When asked if the modern world has changed her community, Jennifer pointed to several recent developments which have impacted the church. Surprisingly, the first issue had to do with sports schedules,

Well, one of the things I noticed from today's Sunday school is a lot of the sports are really big, particularly soccer. Before you wouldn't have games on Sunday, and now there are soccer games on Sunday mornings - and baseball too - and football. So, the games started encroaching on Sundays. There's actually times where parents are like, ‘well the kids have to go to the game, and they can't go to Sunday school.’ It’s the same

110 In November 2016, fifty neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement members organized an “anti-diversity” rally on the Pennsylvania Capitol steps in Harrisburg. In May 2017, the East Coast Knights of the Ku Klux Klan burned a cross on private property in rural Lancaster County. 111 LifeWay Research. “Racial Diversity at Church More Dream than Reality.” lifewayresearch.com. http://lifewayresearch.com/2014/01/17/research-racial-diversity-at-church-more-dream-than-reality/ (accessed October 31, 2017). 112 United States Census Bureau. “Community Facts.” factfinder.census.gov. https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/index.xhtml (accessed October 25, 2017). 113 Pew Research Center. “The Most and Least Racially Diverse U.S. Religious Groups.” www.pewresearch.org. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/07/27/the-most-and-least-racially-diverse-u-s-religious-groups/ (accessed October 25, 2017). 114 ELCA. “Race, Ethnicity and Culture.” Elca.org. https://www.elca.org/Faith/Faith-and-Society/Social- Statements/Race-Ethnicity-and-Culture (accessed October 31, 2017).

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with confirmation on Wednesday nights. They'll have school sports because they're middle school, high school age students.

So that’s a problem… kids playing sports. For those that don't go to church or never went to church, they probably don't even consider the church when scheduling events.

According to a 2012 study published in the Review of Religious Research, the secularization of Sunday, the day historically reserved by Lutherans for worship services, is the church’s biggest challenge. The study examined sixteen churches with dwindling attendance rates and discovered athletic activities are increasingly “scheduled on Sunday mornings at the very time when many churches traditionally have provided .”115 In addition, the dissolution of “blue laws” or “Sunday laws” which prohibited work and retail activity on Sundays, resulted in more residents shopping and working on days typically devoted to worship. Jennifer’s grandfather, like many older Americans who became accustomed to blue laws, dislikes any work on Sundays.

One of the things my grandpop comments on is our neighbor who likes to mow his lawn on Sunday. My grandpop doesn’t like to do anything on Sunday. He gets mad at me if I do the laundry on Sunday! It's like I only have Saturday and Sunday to get this done because I have to go to work, you know? So, I mean work itself is a too.

Another issue impacting traditional churches like Augustus Lutheran Church is the large number of aging members and the lack of younger incoming families.

We are definitely an aging congregation. And like most, we don’t retain young people. Like people my age. I don't know how many people my age are going to another church, this I don’t know. But we are definitely an aging group.

In addition to its aging congregation, the church is competing against newer, “progressive churches,” which offer “contemporary services.” Progressive churches deviate from traditional church methodologies by providing unique worship services and community outreach styles. Jennifer described her own experience with a local progressive church,

I used to work in the movie theatre when I was in college and there was a church that called themselves the “Movie Church” because they met Sunday mornings before the

115 Review of Religious Research. “The Secularization of Sunday: Real or Perceived Competition for Churches.” link.springer.com. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13644-012-0089-7 (accessed October 31, 2017).

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theater opened up in the movie theater and now they have enough money and people that have their own complex! It’s named the church at 422, or Christ Church of the Valley, but everyone kind of knows it as the Movie Church. They made their building kind of look like a 60’s movie theater motif on the outside. But they have a sanctuary, they have a building for their youth program, they offer lacrosse camp and five or six Easter services. They are kind of more of the mainstream, progressive church.

Jennifer acknowledged that Augustus Church “tried to do Saturday service once, not many people wanted to come to that” and contemporary services wouldn’t “go over very well” since “we Lutherans can be stubborn and don't like change.”

Jennifer noted that the pastor’s style and personality is integral to the church community.

Jennifer continued, “We lost a lot of our congregation, probably fifty people” when the church’s beloved pastor left the church.

There’s a lot of church hopping in the Lutheran Church. If you don't like your pastor, you can just literally go over to the next town over to that church and see if you like it better and if you don't you can just hop to the next Lutheran Church. There's so many, so that is a big issue we have.

Yet, Augustus’ conventional approach to liturgy and outreach is what keeps congregants like Jennifer coming back to church every week. When asked what was the most important to her, the religion, traditions or community, she responded, “I think I should say religion, but… (laughs) When I have thought about, do I want to go visit another church, I don't necessarily know that I would like the style, so for me, it's probably the tradition.”

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Fig. 20 - Jennifer (Lutheran), Trappe PA, September 2017

Fig. 21 - Old Chapel Graveyard, Trappe PA, September 2017

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Conclusion The Misrepresentation of the Amish

When I asked Sharon (Horning Mennonite) how she thinks the outside world views her community, she answered, “Well, you know, I’m not sure because they think we’re all Amish! (laughs)

So, I’m not exactly sure!” The prominence of the Amish, and resulting obscurity of the other

Pennsylvania Dutch groups continues today. In fact, this misrepresentation prompted me to question my own family’s association with the Pennsylvania Dutch. My family didn’t drive buggies, live on a farm or wear bonnets. They lived in a city, drove cars, joined the armed forces and used electricity. However, they spoke Pennsylvania Dutch and had a familial culture which was distinct from the greater modern community.

The inaccurate characterization of the Pennsylvania Dutch began around the turn of the twentieth century with the advent of electricity and the mass-production of automobiles. Against the backdrop of these new, modern technologies, the isolated Anabaptist lifestyle, plain dress and outdated mode of transportation became visually and culturally unique from the rest of the world.116 In the mid-

1930’s, travel writers began to take notice. In 1935, photographs of the Amish appeared in Travel magazine’s nationally broadcasted article, “Domain of Abundance: Exploring a Unique Section of

America.”117 Shortly thereafter, other publications followed suit, with tourist booklets describing the

Anabaptist community as “The Most Unique Class of People in the United States” and magazines characterizing Lancaster County as a “ in Pennsylvania.” 118 In 1937, the Amish gained national attention by refusing a $45,000 grant from the Public Works Administration to build a public school, further piquing the interest of the mainstream media. With the help of the newly constructed

116 For nearly 140 years after settling in southeastern Pennsylvania, Amish groups were nearly indistinguishable from their other rural Anabaptist and Protestant neighbors. 117 Donald Kraybill, Marc Olshan, The Amish Struggle with Modernity (Lebanon: University Press of New England, 1994) 115. 118 Kraybill, Olshan, The Amish Struggle with Modernity, 115.

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Pennsylvania Turnpike in 1940, tourists could satisfy their curiosity by easily driving to Lancaster County to see the Amish for themselves. Even the Pennsylvania Department of Commerce took advantage of the mounting Amish frenzy, producing advertisements which encouraged residents to take a “post-war vacation” and visit “Pennsylvania’s plain people.”119

Enterprising businesses exploited America’s fascination with the Amish to draw tourists to

Lancaster County and boost sales, even if the Amish had no association with the presented product. One of the first examples of this type of misleading advertising was Kay’s Pennsylvania Dutch Cook Book

(1936), which featured an Amish family on the title page, but contained no Amish recipes.120 The misrepresentation of the Amish continues to be employed today. Hex signs and barn stars, symbols brought to America and popularized by the Lutheran and Reformed communities (and forbidden by the

Amish), are regularly sold in Amish gift shops and promoted as Amish folk art.

Further distortion of the Pennsylvania Dutch community occurred during World War II. As discussed in the previous chapter, German-Americans were negatively impacted by anti-German sentiment following World War I. Unlike the Lutheran and Reformed Pennsylvania Dutch groups, the

Anabaptists were pacifists and strictly followed the Schleitheim Confession of Faith, which forbids congregants to bear arms. Therefore, the Amish, who received considerable media attention in the twentieth century, became the representational image of the docile Pennsylvania Dutchman as a means to combat American xenophobia. As William Weaver put it, “the Amish image became the culture’s inadvertent salvation.”121 It was around this time the various Pennsylvania Dutch groups became known as “the Amish” in the American imagination.

119 Steven Nolt, A History of the Amish (Brattleboro: Good Books, 1992) 245. 120 Kraybill, Olshan, The Amish Struggle with Modernity, 114. 121 William Weaver, As American as Shoofly Pie: The Foodlore and Fakelore of Pennsylvania Dutch Cuisine (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013) 145.

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Religious Restriction and Geographical Location

Two factors shaped each community and influenced how the groups evolved in the modern world: religious restrictions and geographical location. As for the Lutherans, the early missteps of the church greatly impacted the composition of the community in southeastern Pennsylvania. Without a clear mission or a central church, many of the early Lutheran colonists were geographically separated from one another, which created a fragmented church community. Ironically, this geographical separation led to a large number of rural and urban churches, which encouraged membership and ultimately led to the Lutheran Church’s three million members today. Though, as seen in Jennifer’s testimony, the Lutheran community has grown so large that, “If you don't like your pastor, you can just literally go over to the next town” and try another church.

Furthermore, the Lutheran Church didn’t enforce restrictive codes of conduct. Parishioners were not forced to obey rules concerning dress, transportation or community. They weren’t confined to a specific geographic location, told who to marry and congregants could pursue an education beyond the ninth grade. They were free to live as they wanted. With these liberties, the Lutheran Pennsylvania

Dutch were able to fully integrate into mainstream society and interact with America’s varied urban and rural communities since the eighteenth century. Yet over time, increased mobility, cultural homogenization and secularization of the church diluted the distinction of the Lutheran Pennsylvania

Dutch culture and the predominance of its language.

Nevertheless, ninety percent of the German-speaking immigrants from the Rhineland-Palatinate who settled in southeastern Pennsylvania in the eighteenth century belonged to the Lutheran and

German Reformed churches.122 Free from religious constraints, the fancy Dutch imbued the

Pennsylvania Dutch landscape with visually distinctive arts, crafts and architecture, and contributed to the culture’s rich musical, agricultural and food culture. They also developed educational organizations

122 Daniel Richter, Before the Revolution (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2011) 362.

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and heritage events which educate the public on Pennsylvania Dutch culture, traditions and language.

While their contributions to the community are regularly misattributed to the Amish, the fancy Dutch are largely responsible for the propagation of the Pennsylvania Dutch culture, and through robust educational and religious outreach programs, will continue to help shape its future.

In contrast, the Moravians of Bethlehem lived in a geographically isolated village which was exclusively Moravian for more than one hundred years. Inside the walled-off settlement, Moravians were able to dedicate themselves to the of the church and its economy. Although the Moravians interacted with the local community through trade and religious outreach, Bethlehem was “carved out of the wilderness,” and considered more of an “agreeable country town” where politicians and military leaders from Philadelphia could observe the “peculiar people” of Bethlehem.123 124 Thus, in 1841, when the church and its congregants officially opened its doors to the modern world, the group’s distinctive religious character waned and Bethlehem became “simply one more small American town.”125

Moreover, since the Moravians settled in just a few Pennsylvanian villages, the modern church landscape is limited to the local area.126 Consequently, as Kristen noted, the Moravian church will likely remain, “As it is, small.”

The Moravian Church experienced two religious extremes: the tightly regulated choir systems of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and the open, hospitable church evidenced in Kristen’s testimony. The contemporary Moravian Church makes use of historical traditions such as the choir ribbons (Haubes) and Love Feast, but has fully embraced the modern world and “welcomes everyone” into the church. The Moravian Church is notable for its radical inclusion of women, allowing them to preach, argue and vote since its inception. As Kristen asserted,

123 Klees, The Pennsylvania Dutch, 119. 124 Klees, The Pennsylvania Dutch, 91. 125 Klees, The Pennsylvania Dutch, 121. 126 In addition to Bethlehem, the Moravians built settlements in Nazareth, Emmaus, and Lititz in southeastern Pennsylvania.

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The Moravian Church, since its beginning has raised women up. You weren't going to have an old geezer coming into the Single Sister’s house to tell them what it was like to be a Single Sister. You had a Single Sister who was in charge of the Single Sister’s house. They would have their own worship services led by a woman.

As Kristen explained, “There's no other church that I can think of that is so relaxed and chill and welcoming of any thought at any time.” Indeed, the inclusivity of modern Moravian Church, along with its educational and religious outreach programs, are qualities which have helped the church persist in the modern world.

Interestingly, geographic and religious exclusivity has enabled the Mennonites and Amish to thrive in southeastern Pennsylvania for nearly three hundred years. The Anabaptists see themselves as a

“community within a community, surrounded by the ‘English,’ yet apart from them.” 127 As seen at the

Riehl and Zimmerman farms, multi-generational Anabaptist families act like small micro-communities, and for the most part, this arrangement has allowed each community to remain religiously, culturally and linguistically autonomous from the outside world. However, over the past several decades, these long-standing communities have faced an unforeseen challenge: the rapid growth and encroachment of the non-sectarian population.

There is a construction boom underway in Lancaster County. In addition to taking away the area’s bucolic charm, the frenzied rate of property and commercial development has significantly increased land prices. Today, a sixty acre tract of land in Lancaster County is worth well over one million dollars, a limiting factor for most local farming families. 128 Therefore, as Pennsylvania’s Amish and

Mennonite communities grow, access to reasonably priced farmland in the region dwindles. Property taxes and equipment costs also continue to increase, forcing the Amish and Mennonites to take second jobs, as evidenced at the Riehl and Zimmerman farms. Worse still, the development of Lancaster’s

127 Bonner and Brown, Pennsylvania Germans: An Interpretive Encyclopedia, 158. 128 NPR. “Amish Leave Pa. In Search of Greener, Less Touristy Pastures.” npr.org. https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/05/22/314628097/amish-leave-pa-in-search-of-greener-less-touristy- pastures (accessed November 1, 2017).

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countryside has brought non-sectarian residents (and their technologies) in close proximity to Old Order

Anabaptist families, compromising their traditional way of life. In response, hundreds of Anabaptist families have sold their family farms in search of cheaper, more isolated land.

While the long-held sense of space and autonomy enjoyed by the Amish and Mennonite communities is currently threatened, their populations continue to grow (some Anabaptist sects are doubling in size every twenty years.) 129 Therefore, the question facing the Anabaptists today is whether they will stay in southeastern Pennsylvania, despite the advancing non-sectarian population, or leave. If they leave, Pennsylvania will lose a long-standing and historically significant community. If they stay, they risk the same changes experienced in the Moravian and Lutheran communities: the slow assimilation of its people and weakening of its traditions, culture and language.

Further Research

The aim of this project was to provide a more accurate image of the wide-ranging cultures, traditions and religions underneath the umbrella term “Pennsylvania Dutch.” However, there are a host of other Pennsylvania Dutch groups and subgroups that were not presented in this project which deserve examination. Examples of other active Pennsylvania Dutch communities in southeastern

Pennsylvania include the Groffdale Mennonites, Stauffer Mennonites, ,

Reidenbach Mennonites, German Reformed, , Nebraska Amish, Renno Amish,

Schwenkfelders and , to name a few.

One Amish subgroup which is of particular interest is the Beachy Amish sect, which upholds some Old Order traditions (such as plain dress and separation from mainstream society), yet permits electricity, automobiles, computers and meetinghouse services. Given the increasing socio-economic

129 Nolt, The Amish: A Concise Introduction, 4.

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pressures on the Old Order Amish community, further examination of the Beachy Amish could provide insight into what happens when a historically inflexible community relaxes its rules pertaining to transportation, technology and religious services.

The is another esoteric German religious community regularly overlooked by historians and publications. Settling in Pennsylvania in the early 18th century, the early

Schwenkfelder colonists wore plain dress, held services at home and until 1895, baptisms and communions were not compulsory sacraments. However, like the Moravians, modern Schwenkfelders are now fully integrated into mainstream society. Comprised of only five churches, all located in southeastern Pennsylvania, the Schwenkfelder Church is one of the smallest Christian denominations in the world. Although most people have never heard of the group, the Schwenkfelders were meticulous record keepers, and over the centuries have collected an archive full of primary documents and visual material dating back to the 16th century. Therefore, further inspection of the group would not only produce information about the Schwenkfelder’s history, language and culture, it would also widen the lens of academic study relating to the Pennsylvania Dutch.

Even more intriguing is the continuation of “Braucherei,” the folk-healing practice of powwowing within the plain and fancy Dutch communities. Although the term “powwow” was appropriated from the Algonquian language, Braucherei began long before the European Reformation and was brought to Pennsylvania by German-speaking immigrants. Pennsylvania Dutch powwow rituals treat, heal, bless and protect both humans and livestock both spiritually and physically, and are notable for the integration of liturgical Christian tradition, magic and ritual healing. However, the practice is not widely known outside a few regional academic institutions in southeastern Pennsylvania. Thus, academic study of the Pennsylvania Dutch powwow is not only necessary, but timely, since Braucherei, much like the Pennsylvania Dutch language, is waning in many local communities.

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In terms of scholarship of the Pennsylvania Dutch, previous academic and photographic studies are limited to either the Old Order Amish or a few individual sects, not the community as a whole. With the exception of Bronner and Brown’s contemporary text, Pennsylvania Germans: An Interpretive

Encyclopedia, the majority of these group-specific, Pennsylvania Dutch reference books were published over 75 years ago in the 1940’s and 50’s. Moreover, historical and contemporary photographs of the lesser-known Pennsylvania Dutch communities are minimal at best. Therefore, in order to present a comprehensive cultural portrait and contextualize the entire Pennsylvania Dutch populace, every group should be listened to, studied and documented. At the very least, this project’s simple conceptual framework could be the first step toward a broader understanding of the long-standing Pennsylvania

Dutch communities in southeastern Pennsylvania. At the most, it could reveal original information and quite possibly, inform future inquiry into other underrepresented groups.

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Fig. 22 – Wooden Diving Board, Zimmerman Farm, August 2017

Fig. 23 - Zimmerman Farm, August 2017

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Fig. 24 – Hanging Laundry, Riehl Farm, August 2017

Fig. 25 – Scooter, Riehl Farm, August 2017

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Fig. 26 – North Bethlehem, September 2017

Fig. 27 – South Bethlehem, September 2017

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Fig. 28 - Old Chapel, Augustus Lutheran Church, October 2017

Fig. 29 – Dutch Haven, Lancaster County, PA, Spring 2017

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Fig. 30 – Hex Sign Painter, Eric Claypoole, Lenhartsville, PA, Spring 2017

Fig. 31 – Hex Barn, Hamburg, PA, Spring 2017

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Appendix A: Zimmerman Interview (Horning Mennonite), August 21, 2017

About you: 1. What is your name? Sharon Zimmerman 2. How old are you? 51 3. Where did you grow up? I grew up right here, on this farm. 4. What was your childhood like? Well, it was wonderful. I was adopted when I was a couple days old. My mother and father adopted me into this family and it was the most loving, warm and wonderful family I could ever hope for. I loved growing up here. We worked hard, but we loved each other and we took care of each other. 5. Interesting story from your childhood? The fact that I was adopted is pretty interesting! 6. What languages were spoken at home? Pennsylvania Dutch and English 7. What type of school did you go to? A one-room Mennonite school. 8. What is the last grade you finished in school? 9th grade. 9. Do you have any hobbies? Well, I like to sew quilts and take care of the house. 10. Do you have children? Yes, I have three adult children, two women and one man. 11. What is your day-to-day life like? Well, I wake up, make breakfast, clean up and four days a week I go to my shop, Grandmas Lullaby from 10 to 4. I have 29 young, new mothers sewing for me. We make baby clothing all the way up to size 8. Then I come home, make dinner, clean up and start all over again. 12. What books do you read? Right now… the book that I read is the Bible. Cause I don’t have time to read anything else! 13. What do you do for fun? What do I do for fun? That’s very sad right now. I mean, my family comes first… I mean I’m a grandma. I guess that’s my fun. We’ve been just startin’ to get into camping. We’ve taken the camper out three times this year. We’re just renting it right now, the neighbors want us to buy it, but we’re not sure yet. I would like to, but we have to see what Lester says.

About Religion: 1. What church do you belong to? We belong to the Weaver Land Mennonite Conference. It is a big church. It consists of – I mean throughout all of the communities and states, it’s probably what? (Looks to Lester) Probably 3 to 4 thousand members. And each one would hold what? (Looks to Lester again) Maybe 200 to 300. That’s the Horning Mennonite. That’s the black cars. 2. When were you baptized? I was 16. [I asked if that was the rule in the Mennonite Church.] Kind of. And boys, 16 to 18. (She asks Lester how old he was baptized) He was 17. But usually its 16 because they are driving and then they can just go. 3. Can you describe your church? We start off singing two hymns and then we have about an hour and a half of service. Right? (Sharon asks Lester) It’s from 9:30 to 11:00. We have a bishop, minister and deacon. We draw lots like the Amish. They have men that go in and cast their vote and then the ministers come out and then they’ll say who was in the lot, the men that was chosen, and that takes place on a Sunday which the Amish do different. We do that on a Sunday and then ordination is only on Wednesday. It’s a three day thing. And the ordination thing. We know what it was like because we were one of the chosen ones way back when we were young. Yeah, people do cry. It’s a very serious thing. And we were the youngest in the lot. He was 26, I was 23. It was very… and you know… you have a book, all the men have a book and the women were sitting across from them and watching their men. And when the bishop comes down and opens up the book and it just kept coming closer and closer and closer…and I thought I was just ‘gonna fall over. And I was like, ugh, it’s us. And here it happened to be one, right before us. It was his cousin’s husband. His cousin was sitting beside me and it was very touching because when she seen it was her husband she just reached over to me… and yeah…It’s a big

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responsibility. And that was for a deacon, so it was kind of all the serious work behind the scenes that he would have been responsible for. We would have done if that’s what God would have wanted, but he chose somebody else. It’s just such a responsibility. You just feel like you need to be there for the person. You don’t want to try to make anything difficult for them. 4. How often do you go to church? We try to go every Sunday, unless something else turns up and we can’t go. 5. How important is the church in your life? 10 out of 10. 6. Have any changes occurred in your church in your lifetime? Feelings? They have to go with…the times are changing….so they need to compromise and go with what’s out there. You just like, when the computer came in and the internet…that was a big thing. It’s a big thing. And it was, do they or don’t they? And what like, you know, a lot of Mennonites, have businesses, so they almost needed to have a computer. They came up with a system that they now allow us to have the computer, but we kinda have to go under a program that is actually kind of … it blocks all the … some of the things you just wouldn’t want your children to see. And they came up with that system. So you have to file in like that. So you’re kind of protected in a way, yet you can still use it and order and do your thing. 7. Anything your church does not allow, that you wish it would? No. I’m satisfied with our church. I grew up in this church. My parents took me there and as well as his. He was 10 miles from here and he was just in a different district, but if we would want to go 10 miles on a Sunday, we’d go to the church where they went. Because we are all part of the same church. Our (other) children live half an hour from us. There’s churches in their areas, so when they invite us to Sunday dinner, we go to their church. And their ministers will come and preach at our church. So all the ministers float around. We sometimes don’t always have the same minister every Sunday. When you hear one that has a very good speaking voice, you don’t want the service to end because they’re so interesting to listen to.

About Community: 1. Can you tell me about your community? You see, we have our own church houses, so we all go to church. But we are very family oriented as well. I mean, but we are one big church family. 2. When was the first time you became aware you were in a specific community? You know it was just so normal that you just grew with it. Wouldn’t you say Lester? (Umm hmm) I mean, it was just our way of life and it was just … we just didn’t know anything else. The Amish would quicker maybe go out and explore that maybe a little more than we do. Because they’ve been sheltered. Too much. Like, were able to go out and… how should I say this? I wouldn’t say that we blend in with everyone out there, but we’re out there and we’re not so closed off from everybody else. You like, for instance, when I was growing up, my father had a produce patch. And when I was little, like younger than 8 years old. We would go down to Reading to the city with our produce and we would walk from porch to porch and we would sell our produce in the city. So, we were involved with a lot of people and a lot of people knew my dad and they loved my dad. We were people persons. So we interacted with them and them as we grew up, we were teenagers, it wasn’t like ‘no, you may not do this!’ I think the Amish are maybe a little bit more sheltered and when they become teenagers – Oh they want to go out and try out all this stuff. They probably get into doing some stuff they do their Rumspringa years, which we don’t really encourage our youth to do that. Not really. They have their youth groups that they go with but they don’t go out and necessarily…just go out and do stuff that’s wrong. The Amish are up to stuff you wouldn’t want your children to do! They can have big parties that involves live bands, lots of beer, and they can go on until 2, 3 o’clock in the morning. Or all night long. 3. Has anything changed in the community? Feelings? There’s more people coming in. The Old Order Mennonites are really coming in. The ones that got horse and buggy. They’re now driving the car and because of the Old Order Mennonites having an issue with their computers… right Les? With the

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computer? The younger generation is now joining our church. So that they are able to function and have their business. Like young, married, in their twenties, thirties. 4. How do you see the community in the future? I see the community growing because of the Old Order Mennonites coming over. There’s more, there’s definitely a lot more in the community that there was ten years ago. A lot more. Yeah. It has to be because they’ve had to build more churches. Right? So, even in the area where our daughters live, they do not have the Old Order Mennonites in those areas, but they’re still having to build more churches because the church houses are getting full. So, are they having more children? Or what is it? Why are they building more churches? The churches are getting full. Maybe it’s because our children are getting married and they’re moving to another area and this area the churches are getting full because the Old Order Mennonites are coming in, so maybe it’s because our children are moving away and they’re filling those churches. Maybe that’s why. I don’t know. But the community is growing because they have to build more churches. So, I don’t really know that it’s going to really change that much as far as getting conservative or changing. We were just talking about that. That we thought it really didn’t change a whole lot. I was brought up the way I was brought up, my mother was more of a happy medium. It was not too strict and it wasn’t too liberal. We tried to bring our children up the same. And yeah, I think our children are doing okay. 5. Is there anything you would change about the community? I wouldn’t want anything else. What would you want? I wouldn’t want anything. I try not to be too comfortable with my life, ‘cause I want a better life later. I wouldn’t know what I would want. Maybe it would be different for somebody else, but because of what I told you earlier about my babyhood (adoption), coming here, I feel so overly blessed that I don’t know why I would even want more. You know, I just can’t thank my parents enough. And I have a wonderful husband and he takes me camping! (laughs) We went to Jim Thorpe. 6. Is there anything from outside the community that you wish your community had? No. 7. Has the modern world changed your community in any way? The dress code changed. Because you know, years ago, they would have worn long skirts. When my oldest sisters were with the youth, they wore knee-length skirts and now it’s back to long skirts. The dress pattern is always the same. You add a little this and a little that, but the pattern is always the same. My oldest daughter is a seamstress, so she does all kinds of things and she just tries everything. But she just uses a basic pattern. 8. What do you know about the other PA Dutch communities? (Mennonite, Amish, Moravian, Lutheran) I know about the Amish because we’re with them. We cohabitate. 9. How do you think your community persisted? I feel like it because our forefathers have laid a very good foundation for us to follow after. And I think that is what is keeping that whole, this whole community together. Does that make sense? I really think, you know, we have a small book called The Confession of Faith and in that Confession of Faith book, it goes way, way back and the forefathers are the ones who actually printed it and made that book up. We still use that same book when our youth get baptized, they go through that, that’s their teaching and that’s what they’re taught under. (The Amish) go out there and taste that… do they think it’s greener on the other side of the fence? And I can see too that they’re concerned about that, because we see them going. And we have some friends that their children have left. And I have a friend that says, she’ll still say, ‘Sharon, how did you do it?’ And I’m like, it starts right here (she points to her lap) on your lap. What you do with them on your lap and what you let them get away with, that’s where it’s at. But you also have to be a friend to your children. You have to be their mother and their parent, but you still have to be their friend.

About Culture: 1. How do you feel about your group’s culture? (traditions, food, language) I like them. 2. Unique cultural saying/expression? Not that I know of. 3. Unique cultural tradition? Family and church.

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4. Unique cultural food tradition? It’s usually meat, potatoes, and vegetables. It’s a four course meal. And a dessert!

Final Thoughts: 1. What is most important to you: the religion, traditions or community? Religion. My religion and then my family. 2. Any question you wished I asked that I didn’t? No. 3. What’s the most common question you get asked? ‘What is the difference between the Amish and the Mennonites?’ There’s some people who come here and think we’re Amish. No we’re Mennonites. What’s the difference? And then I explain it to them. We’re all kind of in the community and we’re all… we all worship the same God, but the Amish have their rules and regulations and the Mennonites have their rules and regulations. 4. How do you think the outside world sees your group? Well, you know, I’m not sure because they think we’re all Amish! (laughs) So, I’m not exactly sure!

[Sharon and I continue talking about our families, where they live and the city, Wyomissing came up in conversation. Sharon starts talking about her aunt from Wyomissing.] I had an aunt who lived in the Wyomissing area. My aunt was not Mennonite. She left the Mennonites….my father’s sister. [I asked if her family was allowed to talk to her after she left.] Yes. My father said, ‘she’s still my sister and I still love her.’ So, some of my aunts and uncles were a little bit, they didn’t like that. They drove horse and buggy. They were Old Order Mennonites. My parents come from the Old Order Mennonites and my father got the car. He wanted the car. He just felt like the car was not an evil thing. He just wanted a car for transportation, so you couldn’t stay with the Old Order Mennonites if you had a car. So, they joined our church and that was before I was even born. So, I don’t know anything other than driving a car, but my mother said when my aunt decided to leave and totally get rid of her Mennonite dress, everything… she still did not have a car. So she (Sharon’s mother) said, ‘this lady comes down the back road,’ cause my mother just moved down here, ‘with a horse-and- buggy. And she said, ‘I looked and I thought, who is coming in a bright red suit in this horse-and-buggy?’ And she said, ‘it was a short skirt and it had a jacket, tight blazer to match the skirt.’ And was like, ‘who is in the buggy?’ She said, ‘it come in the driveway!’ She’s like, ‘I looked out the window and I’m thinking what in the world!?’ It was Aunt Liddy! And she come in with a garbage bag full of whatever…she was carrying it on the walk and she had her hair cut and had it all curled up nice. You know, lipstick. I mean she was all dolled up! But she didn’t have a car yet! And my mom said, ‘Liddy! What is going on?’ and she (Aunt Liddy) says, ‘well, I decided that I’m moving to Reading (laughs).’ And my mom said, ‘oh, what for?’ And she said, ‘well, I met this young man down there.’ And she said to my mother, ‘I brought all my clothes for you because I figured you’re the only one that would take ‘em.’ So my mother took her clothes, but you know, they never, ever talked ill about my Aunt Liddy. Never. And we went to visit them. We thought it was great ‘cause she would put in movies for us to watch on TV and my parents never said we couldn’t watch. They said when we go visit somebody’s house and that’s what they have, you’re respectful. You’re not going to tell them to turn it off. So they were very, how would you say, that’s what I liked about my parents because they were a happy medium. They did not put people, they didn’t shove them down. They loved them for who they were. I mean that’s what Jesus would have done. And another thing that my father always said, and I think that’s what really helped us, to just stay where we were. He would say this… if we wanted to go somewhere and they didn’t think we should go… my father would say, ‘well, you decide. If you wanna go there and you wanna be there when Jesus comes back, you decide if you wanna go.’ He never said we couldn’t go! And you know what, Rian? I never went. And I pass that on to my children. It’s a good thing to pass onto your children.

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Appendix B: Riehl Interview (Old Order Amish), August 8, 2017

About you: 1. What is your name? Marian Riehl 2. How old are you? 27 years old 3. Where did you grow up? Gordonville PA 4. What was your childhood like? We were raised up really good. My parents were always here and they were helpful. We didn’t have TV. We had chores as kids. We had to pack the lunches before school as kids. We did milking in the morning too. I still get out and milk in the morning. 5. Interesting story from your childhood? We dressed the dogs and cats in old rags to cover them up. We made a grocery store with my mom’s empty boxes – we put it up on the second floor of the barn. 6. What languages were spoken at home? Pennsylvania Dutch and English. 7. What type of school did you go to? The school was a one-room schoolhouse. It went up to 8th grade and there were thirty people. I had 1 classmate in my grade. 8. What is the last grade you finished in school? 8th grade, which is standard in the Amish community. 9. Do you have any hobbies? Gardening, cleaning and keeping things tidy. 10. Do you have children? No 11. What is your day-to-day life like? [Marian interpreted this question as her ‘day today.’] Great. Today I was canning peaches, hugging on my nieces and nephews, then came home, did laundry, made dinner, cleaned, then made yogurt and bread for breakfast the next morning. 12. What books do you read? Not really any right now. I read books, but I’m not reading any now. [I asked if there were any books she wasn’t allowed to read.] There are some that I don’t want to. We like to read love story books – inspiring books – like about God’s love – how God works to get couples together. 13. What do you do for fun? Youth groups on Sunday. And I play Volleyball – with my Youth Group.

About Religion: 1. What church do you belong to? It’s a church district. It’s the name of the road, the North Centerville district. 2. When were you baptized? 16 years for girls – 18 for boys. [I asked if she ever considered leaving.] No. I can’t understand how people can do it. It’s out in the world again. 3. Can you describe your church? We have the service here every 8 months. We hold it in the barn, clear everything out. The kids come, and then afterward we feed everybody a quick meal with bread, (homemade) peanut butter, cheese, red beans and pickles. 4. How often do you go to church? Every other week. We can go to other districts to visit friends or family. 5. How important is the church in your life? Pretty important. God’s in control. Our preachers talk about the Bible. 6. Have any changes occurred in your church in your lifetime? Feelings? Every year it changes. There are a lot of Amish going English because they just don’t want the Amish life anymore. When people leave, they go English. Sometimes they come back, but not usually. [I asked if any of Marian’s friends went English] Not really any of my close friends, but I knew of one girl who left…and we just had to let her go…that’s her life, it’s not our life….the ministers can’t do anything about it. It’s her choice. Of course it’s hard on us, but it’s just her choice…so we just have to let it go. 7. Anything your church does not allow, that you wish it would? It’s just our tradition. We try to stay within our church rules.

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About Community: 1. Can you tell me about your community? Of course we see our church family every other Sunday, but it’s more family that gets together. 2. When was the first time you became aware you were in a specific community? I’m not even sure. You just grow up with it. I don’t even know how old I was, ‘cause you just grow up with it. You’re so used to it. Like when you go to school… it’s just normal. 3. Has anything changed in the community? Feelings? People are leaving. I don’t know how people are doing it. 4. How do you see the community in the future? It’s of course not what it used to be. Of course, because people are leaving. It’s hard to explain to you. You can see it is changing dress-wise. It’s not how it was when my dad and mom were growing up. 5. Is there anything you would change about the community? No. I wouldn’t change a thing. [She explained that she has the best of both worlds.] ‘I’m a people person’, I’m just happy to go out and work at the Plant Nursery, talk to all sorts of people and return back home. 6. Is there anything from outside the community that you wish your community had? If you were to ask other people they would probably say yes. But not me. I mean, I like the life I have. Of course people that ‘go English’ would want a car. [I asked what she would do if she needed a car.] We have a taxi driver that drives for the Amish. Actually, we also do Uber. It was out for how many years now? 3 or 4 years….and this year is the year the Amish found out about it. 7. Has the modern world changed your community in any way? Uber, dress-code, and more people leaving. 8. What do you know about the other PA Dutch communities? (Mennonite, Amish, Moravian, Lutheran) We don’t really interact with the Mennonites. We keep our distance from the Mennonites. We see them, but it’s not that we have stuff in common with them. My sister has neighbors who are Mennonites, but they still go to their churches. 9. How do you think your community persisted? I guess because the younger people kept the strong, as the older ones passed away, the younger ones stuck together and just made it work. The younger ones took hold. That’s how it is with our district, the older ones passed away and now the younger ones that were sitting by the bottom line, now they’re the ones sitting up almost by the minister. We just all help each other. We all have our problems, but…. yeah.

About Culture: 1. How do you feel about your group’s culture? (traditions, food, language) I like them. 2. Unique cultural saying/expression? Make the light out. 3. Unique cultural tradition? Of course there are special occasions, but they aren’t always on the same day. Of course we have Ascension Day, Pentecost and Easter Monday. These are our holidays. We usually hang out with our Youth Group. And vacations of course. 4. Unique cultural food tradition? For our evening meal we always have potatoes. But the (main dinner) isn’t always the same. We often have chicken casseroles, zucchini casserole and corn on the cob.

Final Thoughts: 1. What is most important to you: the religion, traditions or community? I like how we dress. I would say traditions. It’s nice that we keep our traditions, because otherwise if we’d kind of fall apart. It all binds us together and keeps this (the Amish community) going. 2. Any question you wished I asked that I didn’t? No.

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3. What’s the most common question you get asked? People ask us about Rumspringa. When people turn 16, they go to Youth Group and make the decision. 4. How do you think the outside world sees your group? I think a lot of people like the Amish. Amish farms are kept nice – their flower beds, you can always tell when an Amish person lives at a place. They have a goal in their life and like working on the land. If you go to – we were in Virginia for two days last week, we have friends from Virginia. They are English friends that we got to know - and there you see flowers and big flowerbeds but it’s not like (what you’d see) in Lancaster. Amish people know what they like and take care of it.

[At the end of the interview Marian and I were speaking about how Amish people take care of plants like they take care of their families – how they work hard to keep them healthy and alive and she started taking about how ‘English’ people don’t take care of their families. I reminded her of how awkward it was when she asked me if I was married.] It’s for real sad how so many people are divorced. I mean there are some Amish people too that don’t live together…the man just left…We don’t have divorce…if an Amish man would just run away, the woman would not get married again. It’s just sometimes hard to see all these English people, like is this your child or is this his child? It’s so ridiculous! We just sometimes say – okay, were not even going to ask people if they’re married or not – cause sometimes there a big story behind it, the child is with the grandma? It’s his… It’s hers… We just believe that if God thinks it’s possible, then it’ll work out. We try not to worry, even though we do sometimes…if you trust in God, you don’t worry. We think about what we want in life before we get married. I know there’s people out there who fall in love and get married and have problems afterward. I know what I want – and I’m sure my (future) husband’s going to have problems someday too, he’s not going to be perfect… were not perfect and we all make mistakes, but we forgive each other and move on.

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Appendix C: Walsh Interview (Moravian), September 15, 2017

About you: 1. What is your name? My name is, well, I’ll say Kristen Walsh. So, I recently got married. It was the most incredibly Moravian wedding service too. I got married in the old chapel here, which is the second place of worship. (It was built in) 1751. It’s attached to the Gemeinhaus, but the Gemeinhaus is the first place of worship. (1741) [We discussed Moravian history and Zinzendorf, who was an influential Moravian figure.] My thesis was… I was trying to argue that the Revolutionary War was the turning point for the end of the community here. ‘Cause they weren’t used to the outsiders coming in and once they started moving through town, the men started growing their hair longer like theirs… not so much beards, more like ponytails. Some of the elders in the community issued very strict orders that you can’t have your hair longer than your ears. 2. How old are you? I am 30. 3. Where did you grow up? I grew up in Hellertown. It’s the same exit as Bethlehem on (Highway) 78. It’s just on the other side of the (South) Mountain there. 4. What was your childhood like? It was good! I have three brothers, so it was rowdy and quiet. I’m of that age and generation where we had the world without terrorism and… it was quiet and you don’t realize anything until you grow up and you’re like, ‘oh gosh.’ But, I liked it… I really like it. It was nice. I lived with a bunch of brothers, so it was a lot of fun and games. I was a tom-boy for a while. 5. Interesting story from your childhood? I grew up in a normal house. I just happened to be a Moravian. We went to Wyoming. My uncle had some land out there, so my mom wanted to go visit him. So we drove out there because my parents don’t fly. And we drove all the way out there and we went to Yellowstone National Park and I remember going around where all the hot springs are. And there’s walkways. And my oldest brother, who’s twelve years older than me… he goes, ‘you can’t step off the walkway.’ And I was like ‘why?’ And he told me because it was quicksand. So I was six, and I remember that. So, I freaked out if anybody was about to walk off this walkway. Even people I didn’t know. I mean, I remember screaming cause some guy was grabbing something he dropped. And, it wasn’t until I was in college. (laughs) And, somebody brought up Yellowstone and I’m like ‘that’s quick sand out there’ and they were like, ‘what?’ And I said, ‘that’s quicksand. That’s why they have the walkways.’ And they were like ‘no.’ (laughs) I called my brother and asked, ‘did you lie to me all those years?’ He said, ‘of course I did! You were six, you weren’t going to listen to me!’ 6. What languages were spoken at home? English. My mom was raised in a German household, but she’s not the Moravian. She was both German and Pennsylvania Dutch. So, her mother was Pennsylvania Dutch and her father was German. I think it was my mom’s grandfather who came off the boat from Germany. I don’t know about the Pennsylvania Dutch side. My mom said in their house they would speak German, not to her, the kids didn’t speak German, but the parents did. So, the parents would constantly discuss things and the kids had no idea what was going on. They never taught the kids. But my mom said the only thing she learned was, ‘was machst du nach der schule’ which means what are you doing today after school? That’s the only thing she ever taught me. [During our first phone call, Kirsten told me her father used another PA Dutch saying. I asked if she would repeat what he said.] My mom’s dad, who, anytime we’d do anything that was remotely Pennsylvania Dutch in his eyes, he would always say, ‘Don’t be Dutchy!’ (Kristen says this with the distinct PA Dutch accent) And, I mean, especially if we went to dinner and we were at a restaurant…cause my mom’s one of five… so all of the sisters would be like, ‘oh dad, let’s just chip in.’ He’s like ‘DON’T BE DUTCHY! PUT CHYOUR WALLETS AWAY.’ You know, he’d get really mad and just yell. (laughs) And, he also said stuff like, ‘Don’t chyou worry about it.’ So my mom and I do that all the time. Don’t be Dutchy. (laughs) 7. What type of school did you go to? I went to a normal public school. 8. What is the last grade you finished in school? I have a Master’s degree.

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9. Do you have any hobbies? I like to sew. My grandmother taught me. She’s the Moravian. Mostly because, as she got older, she needed help threading the machine and fixing bobbins and stuff. So then, she started showing me little things here and there. Then I really got into it, and then once she passed away, my aunt gave me all of her sewing stuff. She said, ‘you’re the only one who knows how to do any of this.’ I ended up keeping one of her machines. She had three. And then I used the other one for parts and then I used the third one… it was a 1970’s Singer, but there was no way I could ever get it replaced. It wasn’t a collectors…it was a 70’s Singer. So, I actually used it to get a discount on a new machine. Then I started a sewing company. (laughs) My grandmother’s name was Vivian. And I used her vanity…so I got her vanity that she used to have in her bedroom where she had this sewing machine. So, I use that in my sewing room and so, I wasn’t going to call it ‘Vivian’s Vanity,’ that just seems really stupid. So, I called it ‘Vivian’s Desk.’ Now I sew bags and I sell the at craft shows. So, that’s probably my biggest hobby. It’s on Etsy. 10. Do you have children? No children. I have a dog. 11. What is your day-to-day life like? Pretty basic. If I get up in time. I don’t start until 9-ish, but my husband starts at 8 at work. He has to drive further than I do. So, we usually set the alarm for 6:30 or something and if I get up with him, we’ll go down and have breakfast together and watch the news. I like the local news, I don’t know why. (laughs) I come here to work. I’m the director of Visitor Services. And I manage the Visitor Center, the Gundy House next door, the Smithy, all the part-time staff, the custom group tours, the volunteers…. I like it. It keeps me busy. 12. What books do you read? I am so embarrassed to say it, but I love time-travel romance novels. (laughs) Not Outlander. Not Outlander. My favorite authors are Lynn Kurland. Check her out. (whispers) It’s way better than Outlander. And I love Bill Bryson. I love his dry humor approach to travel. I love to travel, and I love that most of the places that I’ve gone, he’s gone too. I’m like, ‘Yes! That’s so true!’ (laughs) You know, so…I think my favorite book by Bill Bryson, besides Notes from a Small Island, is At Home, which is a history of private life. And he goes through every room in the house and tells you the history of that room and things in that room. It’s really cool! My husband knows when I’m reading Bill Bryson because I’ll sit there and (makes giggling sound), I’m just over there giggling every now and then, and so he knows it’s Bill Bryson. (laughs) I like mysteries too. Usually it’s popular mysteries, so like the Girl on the Train and I guess I like dystopian novels like Fahrenheit 451 and Brave New World and Station 11. 13. What do you do for fun? I love to watch British television. And I love to bake. Another thing my grandma taught me. The Moravian one. I was the only girl, so she often…she’s was born in 1920, so she has that mentality that girls bake and sew. So, I learned a lot of home keeping things from her. I’d always help her, because she didn’t have a mixer, so I’d be her mixer. So everything was mixed by hand. I don’t do that anymore. (laughs) For my wedding, I was like ‘I want a mixer.’ (laughs) Which I love. It’s like heaven on earth. But I love to bake. I rarely now bake with measuring cups. I only use a scale. So, I use a lot of British recipes. (whispers) So, I should just move there. (laughs) I went to the (Moravian) church in London. That was an education. Totally different. When I went in, I was expecting a bunch of British…like ‘oh, jolly good day…’ that kind of Moravian. No, it was mostly people from the islands. From , the Caribbean, the … besides the pastor, who was from Germany and me… we were the only white people in the building. And it was a totally different service than I had ever experienced in a Moravian church. It was long. It also happened to be the men’s fellowship weekend, so the men ran the whole service. There was a lot of singing. It was unique because they heavily used the brother/sister term. In the Moravian church, we use brothers and sisters. Every time they came up to me they’d say, ‘oh, our sister from America is here…. Our sister from Bethlehem has come to visit us’ and ‘Sister, how are you doing today?’ I mean, you hear it occasionally here, mostly from pastors around here… you rarely hear it from congregants. For everybody to… it was so welcoming. I mean they had my name up on their PowerPoint presentation for the church service where they put their music up. ‘Cause I had sent

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them an email just asking for directions and times, ‘cause I wanted to come and see it. Well, they took my information and put in… I would have really felt bad if I didn’t show. (laughs) It was really funny because they said ‘our sister from Bethlehem is here’ and they all just (turned their heads and looked at me)… because it was not hard to find me… it was really interesting. It was a two and a half long service. [I asked how long service was in Bethlehem] Like 45 minutes.

About Religion: 1. What church do you belong to? Theoretically… I was born and raised in Mountainview Moravian church which is in Hellertown. I’m still technically a member. Since I’ve moved to Easton, I now live in Palmer Township and Palmer has a Moravian church. So, I kind of go in between the two. But I officially belong to Mountainview Moravian church. You can go anywhere, it doesn’t matter. I was an elder in my church, which you have to get elected to. And from what they’ve told me, I was the youngest elder in my church. I was fresh out of college. 24 years old or 26. When I was an elder, I got a lot of insight on the behind the scenes in the church itself. One of them was the Moravian church puts a kind of estimated price tag on every person. Kind of like the cost of upkeep. The Moravian Church is based on the number of people who are in it and they have an amount that they assigned to everybody. And that’s the goal that you want to get for people to contribute every year. And I think its $112 or something like that. But the idea is that if you are able to get $112 from every Moravian worldwide, you’d be able to support the budget. There’s obviously people who can’t afford that so you encourage other people to take on that role. They broke it down one year based on church membership. So, it got to the point that year when they actually said, ‘Mountainview Moravian Church, your goal is to raise this much money throughout the year to support the members of your congregation’. It actually sparked us to review our membership rolls and say, ‘Listen, you haven't come to church in four years. We haven't seen you even at Christmas. Are you even interested in still being a member of this church? It's not that we want to kick you out but we need you to be an active member.’ We'll still send you information but we're going to take you off the active list if you're not interested. Maybe you're attending a church elsewhere and we can transfer your membership to that church. But it was starting to bring down the numbers. [What is the process to become an Elder?] When I did it, I was approached by a woman in the church. You can't nominate yourself. Someone else has to approach you. You can't say, ‘I'm interested in becoming an Elder,’ and then you get to become one. I had come back from school and really got into going to church. My grandmother was alive at the time and she lived in a nursing home that was in Allentown. She couldn't drive. I would often take her to church. I was in church every week and then to take up the time I would sing in the choir. I would go pick up my grandmother to go to church, sing in the choir and then take her maybe to lunch or something then we go home. Because I was in church every week and I was young and I guess I had a big mouth, the pastor whenever she would be out of the town and they'd have a fill-in pastor, that pastor didn't know our congregation, they didn't know people. What they ended up doing is have me help during services. I would actually lead worship and at the parts where you'd have to be a pastor to do it, like the sermon or any kind of sacraments or anything like that, the fill-in pastor would come up and do that part. I led prayer, I did welcome and announcements, things like that and everyone really got a kick out of it, our church is small, and so everyone got a kick out of me. I would say, ‘Okay, everyone please rise for the singing of the hymn.’ This is a lot of power because you guys are listening to me. I might get a little-- ‘Everyone sit down.’ ‘Now everyone settle down.’ ‘Now, you guys sit down.’ ‘Now, you guys stand up.’ We all got a kick out of it. I was raised in the church. Everybody knew who I was and I knew who they were. Through that process, I guess somebody said, someone's chair was coming up for Elder and they approached me and said would I be interested in becoming an Elder in the church and I'm like, ‘Never really thought about it’,

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and kind of like, ‘That's the deal with it?’ They basically said you're making the decisions, the responsibility of the Elders is to care for the congregants and make decisions for them. Then, I said, ‘That would be fine’ and then I had to be approved by the congregation. Then they obviously voted me in. They weren't going to say, ‘No.’ [How did they vote?] Gosh, it was a while ago. It was during a service. I think, they even put it in the mailings to let people know. It said, ‘On this day we're going to be approving these two people to become Elders of the Church. If you want to participate you should be there to vote,’ or I can't remember exactly how it was done. But it wasn't anything like a mailed out ballot or anything. I can't remember exactly when it happened but then I had to be elected as an Elder. There was a special part in the service. I remember being elected because then the other members of the Elders and the other members and the trustees would come up and shake my hand and then you had to walk around and everyone would give you hugs and stuff. It was neat. Then I think almost weekly or bi-weekly, we had meetings and there was five of us. So, there were four Elders and the pastor. Then you elect an Elder, a head Elder of your church who then goes on to . Synod is kind of like the Congress of the Province. Synod is where, I think it happens every year, where all of the head Elders of each congregation come together representing their church's opinions. There was one time where we had to vote on whether or not we would allow pastors who are in openly gay relationships to be ordained. It passed in our church, a couple people left. They didn't agree with it, so they left. Which is unfortunate. There's those kinds of things that come up that are really serious conversations. You have to pass up through the Elders. Then, from the Synods, you identify some head Elders from those different provinces. There's several, there's the Northern Province, which is Bethlehem is the seat of the Northern Province. The Southern Province, is Winston-Salem, is the seat there. From what I hear, I haven't gone yet but from what I hear it's like a mini-Bethlehem. They're the seat of the Southern Province, I believe. Then there's a European Province and so on and so forth. There's several Provinces and then they all come together at the World Board of Elders. There was a woman, she was the head of, I think it was the World Board of Missions, and she was in an openly gay relationship. I remember that and being like, ‘Yes, we are so awesome.’ That not only is she a woman, but she's in an openly gay relationship and in this massively high position in the church, and everyone supports her. That was really neat. So yes, being an Elder was interesting. It was just little things, but when that came up that was a big deal. I was glad to be a part of that. 2. When were you baptized? I was just a baby, infant baptism. My Mom was baptized as an adult. She was Catholic. I think it was technically baptism and confirmation at the same time. It was an interesting service. It was a long time ago, I think I was 13. But my mom had divorced her first husband and was excommunicated from the church. They're pretty serious about that one. I know, my cousin's been divorced three times and she still goes to Catholic Church and they don't give her a hard time. I think it just depends on who's in charge and that's the same way in the Moravian church, too. It depends- yes, we do haubes in Mountainview but they don't do haubes in Palmer. It's like a little head doily. I probably have a picture. I have a picture of me because I use to wear them on Christmas Eve service. My friends and I would get together after Christmas Eve service and go over here to the hotel for drinks, to see each other and wish each other a Merry Christmas. I'd always still have my haube on and they all would love that. So, there's a bunch of pictures of me with my haube on drinking at the hotel. The haube's neat and I think it's just really cool. The haube originated as the Schneppel-haube. So, there's-- I probably have it in the back. But it's a folk cap from the 1700's. It comes together like a little peak, like a little-- one of those peak kind of thing and Schneppel-haube means a cap with the point like a bird's beak. It's the Schneppel bit, the bird thing, and haube means hat. But it was on your head and you had it tied with the colored ribbon associated with your choir system. The choir system still exists in a way. For instance, when you're a child and you're not confirmed you wear red. So when I was in the children's choir, I had a

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haube with a red ribbon on it. According to the choir system, I had a red ribbon. Because I was a child and I wasn't confirmed. Then once when I had confirmation, I was confirmed when I was about 16 or 17. There was a bit to do with changing your ribbons. So they actually then took off my red ribbon haube and gave me one with pink ribbons. Then I have that up until now. Then when I got married, I wanted that to be a part of the service somehow. In the old church, what they would end up doing, in the colonial areas, is they would actually cut your ribbons and take your haube and give you a new one with blue ribbons. I wasn't about to wear a haube on my wedding day. So instead I put a pink ribbon around my wrist and they cut it off, the pastor cut it off and gave me a blue ribbon. I have a blue ribbon now. Then my grandmother, I never met my grandfather, after he died, she went by as a widow. After she passed, I got her haubes, and that's what I was going to bring to you tonight, I completely forgot about it. But I have her haubes and I have her haube with the white ribbon on it, and then I have another haube that doesn't have a ribbon but I do have her blue ribbon though. 3. Can you describe your church? Our church is really small. There's 20 pews and it evolved over time. I remember when I was really little, our pastor his name was Reverend Shaftstall and we always called him Reverend Shaftstall. He was a really 1950's kind of guy, and church was a very somber and quiet place. Yes, like if you got loud you had to go into the nursery. But as we got older and a lot of the kids in the church group-- I grew up with a lot of kids. We were the same age. As we got older, we had a late pastor, his name is Phil. The coolest guy, and I really credit him with a lot of how this group of kids and I grew up because he was genius. My brother was a troublemaker and only Phil could keep him under control. I don't know how he did it. I mean, he was just great. But as we got older there was auditions put down to the church to allow for classrooms for kids for Sunday school. Then we had what we call the Dayspring rooms. We actually put on an air conditioned part of the church, so we finally had air conditioning. Every Sunday we'd be at church for almost four hours because we would go for Sunday school first. Sunday school always started with this singing introduction, like a very lax version of service. We would sing, Our God is an Awesome God and really popular songs at the time, not hymnal songs. We really liked that. Then we'd go off into our Sunday school classrooms and then by the time Sunday school was out, we'd come back to the Dayspring room and there'd be snackies and lemonade or whatever, then my mum would show up and my grandma would show up and we'd all go in to church. Then after the church we'd come out and there'd still be some snackies left. We would end up being there for like 8:30 until noon sometimes. There was a whole to do. Then on Sunday nights, we had Youth Fellowship which really grew. We did a couple of retreats as a youth group. We helped build homes down in Tennessee, I built a wheelchair ramp for a woman who hadn't left her house in years. [Are you building these things for Moravian families or just people in need?] No. I don't think they were Moravian families, it was just people in need, and most of these were retreats that were made of many denominations. That was one of the biggest things in the Moravian church is this ecumenical movement that we all believe in the same thing. A lot of our stuff in the youth group really instilled that too, and I didn't realize it until later on. [Ecumenical?] The ecumenical thing actually started with Zinzendorf. I think they call it ‘in communion’ with several denominations: the Lutherans, the Methodists. We do pulpit exchanges and there's this great work between these churches then. You can have a communion in a Lutheran church and it counts towards your Moravian communion. So you can attend other churches and it's still perfectly fine. Even as a Catholic, and you were to come into the Moravian church, you absolutely can have communion, and you can partake in whatever you want because as long as you believe in, I forget what they say. I think it's like, as long as you believe in our father and his son or something, I forget what they say. But everyone is welcome in the Moravian church. That's one thing I love about it. A lot of churches don't like that, at least they didn't back in the day. Many still don't, and it's unique. The thing I really like is the Moravian motto and I used it in my wedding. I used it in my vows. ‘In Essentials Unity, in Non-essentials Liberty and in all things love.’ The idea is that the essentials are -- when I first moved to Palmer, when I started going to Palmer Moravian church, they had Lenten. We do

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Lenten soup classes during -- so the week of Lent, most churches will have a Lenten soup focus, and you all focus on something. That one year they particularly focused on the Moravian motto which I found really interesting. They were saying the essentials aren't things like whether or not you believe in the Holy Trinity. It's even more basic. What do we see as essential to being in this church? It was just some-- I can't even remember the exact words that they said but it was way more basic than I had ever thought. I take it just as my life's motto. Like listen-- During our vows I said, ‘In essentials unity, raising our children together, deciding on what pizza we want to order for dinner.’ Like we'll do all of that together. Then in non-essentials liberty, I said something like, ‘He plays in musical bands. I'll never play in a musical band but I'll always support him playing in those bands.’ That kind of thing. I just love that motto. You can see it in the church itself. I actually just recently saw a woman who left the church when we said that it was okay for pastors in openly gay relationship. Just recently saw her a couple weeks ago. She said something to me like, ‘Oh, you probably don't like me because I left’. I'm like, ‘Listen, you know how the Moravian Church is. We're going to love you forever. Whether you like the ideas of the church or not, you're still a wonderful human being and we wish you the best and hope that you have it wherever you are. You're always welcome to back whenever you want. Even for a visit to say ‘hi.’ I never see any hard feelings or anything in that church. [Did she go somewhere else?] She went back to the Catholic Church. Yes. She was divorced. She didn't like the fact that she had to wear a pink ribbon for a long time. I remember that she was really upset because that she was a single woman so when she was in the choir with us, singing choir, she had to wear a pink ribbon because she wasn't married. She couldn't wear a blue ribbon and she was really upset about that. Then they brought the candles back, the gay pastors and she left. 4. How often do you go to church? I'm bad about that lately. Tuesdays, Sundays are my only day off, so I don't often go to church on Sunday. I've been down for about a couple months. But I usually went at least once a month if not more but not every Sunday. Yes. I'm a bad little Moravian at the moment. But, the best part about being Moravian, it doesn't matter if you go to church to worship. The biggest thing that I was told once is that you have to just make sure you get confirmed-- or not confirmed. You have communion once per year and you're good. So it's just like, ‘Just make sure you go get communion once per year and you're fine.’ I've never had anybody who up and say, ‘We haven't seen you in a while,’ it's nothing like that. Even when I walk into Palmer, I know nobody. Nobody knows who I am. But I'll walk in and they greet me like, ‘Oh, Sister Kristen.’ Like we just went out to dinner the night before and they greet you like you're their long lost friend or something. 5. How important is the church in your life? Very, actually. I told Jerry, he's a new friend. He doesn't really believe. But he knows that I do. I said, ‘This is a package deal. When we have kids, they will be little Moravians whether you like it or not and you're- With them. He was raised in the Lutheran church. Went to Sunday school, did that whole thing, and once he was old enough to make his own decision of whether or not he wanted to continue. That when his parents were like, ‘You decide.’ He decided not to go. Which is fine. In all things, love. It doesn't bother me if he doesn't go to church. But he will go with me when I ask him, and he will be supportive of it. He never says anything against it. He knows. (laughs) 6. Have any changes occurred in your church in your lifetime? Feelings? I will just keep talking about Mountainview because I don't know too much about Palmer. The biggest change in Mountainview is its dying out. Every time I go it's more and more depressing and that's I think why I started going to Palmer. Palmer is a very young church. It's huge. There's so many people in church when I go on just a random Sunday. It's lively, you can see the older members of the congregation of Palmer are just as ecstatic as the younger. A baby cries and they love it. In Mountainview, a baby cries and everyone is like, [Kristen growls]. It's still that older generation. I love them because I grew up with them, they're all wonderful and every time they see me they'll say, ‘Oh, your grandma was so sweet.’ Everyone knew who she was. But they don't have many kids in the church. There's no more youth group. There's no more Sunday school. [Why do you think that is?] This will sound awful. It depends on the pastor. I think it really

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depends on the pastor. While I grew to appreciate the pastor who's there because I've worked with her. It's a woman. Yes. I've worked with her as an elder. I became an elder and she was the one who had me filling in when she was out of town or something. But, it all depends on the passions of the pastor, and while I have great respect for this pastor, I don't see a lot of passion for the job that she's in. She does a good job but it's not-- if you talk to her and then you talk to somebody like Hopeton Clennon who's the pastor here at Mountainview-- Sorry, at Central, and he's the one who married us. Totally different. You see Hopeton and you just instantly become energized, and if you see the pastor of Mountainview -- it's more, I don't want to say lazy because that sounds awful, but it is kind of a lack of interest. Indifference. That's more like it. You can't get rid of a pastor in the Moravian Church. I'm sure if the pastor was just awful, like downright awful, you could say something to the higher ups in the church. But, the pastor moves as they are called. For instance, the pastor before the pastor we currently have was called to serve at East Hills and now he is the pastor there. He had no choice. He couldn't really say yes or no. He couldn't say, ‘This is not a good time for me.’ He had to go. So it's always a calling. I'm sure the church overall sees how membership is dwindling in Mountainview, and I don't think Mountainview would survive if they don't change their strategies. They're doing more. They're definitely getting more involved in the community than I've ever seen. They've been doing a clothing drive which has become really successful. But every time I go, my mom and dad and I and Jeremy, we all went to Palmer Moravian the first year we moved to Easton for the church service. My grandmother was no longer alive and we were all bitter about it, so we decided we got to go to a different church for Christmas and hated it. No one was wearing haubes, they didn't do the candles right. We were really upset. They didn't do our favorite song. It wasn't right. We now still go back to Mountainview. But whenever we go to Mountainview for Christmas, we look around like, ‘My God I can't remember when he had to do three services, and every service was so full that we had to put chairs in the isle.’ People were standing, and the place was so stinking hot no matter how much air conditioning you put on because there were so many bodies in the small room. But now it's just like nothing. Now it's one service and there's barely anybody there. 7. Anything your church does not allow, that you wish it would? No. Our church is so chill. I think that's why we always liked Mountainview. I could walk in and be a complete idiot and walk in and be like, ‘Hey everybody!’ and they would just laugh and love it. They would just love it. Our church really embraced every personality that was in the church. Hell, maybe some better air conditioning, but other than that it was-- maybe a different pastor. Bump things up and have the youth group again. At Palmer, they've got a little choir. They've got so many kids in that place. I know when we have kids, this is awful, because I'm complaining about how there's no kids in Mountainview, but when we have kids, we're taking them to Palmer. There's more kids there. There's only two babies in Mountainview because it's the pastor's babies. Those are the only babies I have ever seen there. [What is it like to be a woman in your church? Is there anything women can't do?] Both pastors at both churches I've been talking about are women. We have a woman as the-- well she was the head of the Court of Missionaries. I'm pretty sure there's a woman pastor at Central. There's women everywhere. It began in the original church. In the early church, if you were a missionary, it was always a husband and wife team, and the wife was the equal of her husband and women were educated the same as men even as early as the 1740's. That created a lot of animosity in the other religious groups in the area at the time. So a lot of people really disliked the Moravians in the early years. Because of that choir system, you weren't going to have an old geezer coming into the single sister’s house to tell them what it was like to be a single sister. You had a single sister who was in charge of the single sister’s house. They would have their own worship services led by a woman. The Moravian church, since its beginning has raised women up. Zinzendorf. That one's an interesting one. He had this obsession with the . And always said the Holy Spirit was the mother. He feminized so many things, I think, because of that thought of the Holy Spirit being feminine. There are actually cards that teach you about intercourse in the collection that depict the side wound in

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Christ as a vagina. He really got into that and you see it a lot. Christ is often referred to as the bridegroom. The church is even considered feminine. It was almost I guess was a euphemism that the highest you can achieve is by intercourse. That was an incredibly . Yes. It got really intense. The fact that they had these conversations…it's just crazy. It's so funny, because as we give tours and things here, we'll mention Zinzendorf and his influences on the church and the early church is just ridiculous with this feminism piece. The educating cards and things. Yes, you see that a lot, that the Holy Spirit calms you and, it's interesting. You'll find that more in-

About Community: 1. Can you tell me about your community? Now it's grown to work together. This is just my opinion. I don't know how it was when I was younger. But when I was younger, it was a very-- we're central, we're East house, we're college house, we're whatever, all the different-- Mountainview, we're Palmer. Now it's become this whole thing and it-- I almost want to think it started out-- There's a camp for Moravian kids, specifically, called Camp Hope. I went there when I was younger, my brother went there a long time too. All of the pastors were counselors. So you met people from the other churches and things and now that we're all grown up, I went to Easter Service over at Emmaus Moravian church. My brother recently moved to Emmaus and said that Chris Keasler is the pastor over here and I'm like, ‘Oh my gosh, Chris?’ We know who the different pastors are, we know who Hopeton is, we know who Chris is, we know who Derek is, so note, I'm calling them by their first name. They're not Reverend Shaftstall anymore, it's Derek and Chris. Chris is a bishop in the church and he doesn't insist that you call him Reverend since Hopeton. It's incredibly equal no matter who the person is, so you always feel really comfortable talking to pastors about things. Chris was a counselor for my younger brother, John who's a trouble maker, so Chris knows all about John. When we went there for Easter service, I didn't get to go this past year, they went, but I went the year before with them and my nephew of course was along, and Chris is just like, ‘Oh man, you are just like your dad.’ (laughs) It's really crazy how everybody remembers everybody. It's to the point where you could easily move between the different churches and you know somebody. The churches support each other through a lot of stuff so it's always good and it's always pleasant to see somebody from a different church. Especially when you work here and people come in wanting to take a tour on the Moravians because they are a Moravian. I'll say, ‘Which church are you at?’ And they're like, ‘Oh, I'm Moravian,’ so I was like, ‘Derek, he's great.’ And we start talking. It's almost like a brotherhood because when you meet someone who is a Moravian, it's kind of impressive. Especially if you're not here. If you're somewhere else and you meet someone who is a Moravian, it's like ‘What?’ You can literally say, ‘I'm one in a million.’ 2. When was the first time you became aware you were in a specific community? Probably in college because I grew up here and everybody's Moravian. There's nothing weird about Moravians when you live here. But the second you leave, they're always like, ‘What? You're who? I thought they just ate cookies.’ And, I'm like, ‘Cookies? I've never even heard of Moravian cookies.’ It was just weird and when you say something about a love feast and people think you're talking about an orgy. They don't know what you're talking about anymore, really, so definitely in college, which was a rude awakening for me. [Where did you go?] Western PA. But in Western PA, they never heard of Moravians other than the cookies. Yes, they have them but I didn't know about the cookies because the cookies is a southern province thing. Or they make sugar cake. 3. Has anything changed in the community? Feelings? It's become more open, I think. The best part about it is it's changed as the times have gone on, overall. I mean, the fact that they allow the gay pastor thing. That's huge. I'm sure. I'm just not aware of it. It's such a forward-thinking church and that, I think, is the reason why I would never leave. There's no other church that I can think of that is so relaxed and chill and welcoming of any thought at any time. [Has it always been that way?] No, it was strict. Zinzendorf was like, ‘You can't have your hair longer than your ears.’ Women had to have their hair

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pulled back, so it was definitely stricter. You couldn't just get married. You had to have the approval of God through the lot, which was kind of primitive, magic eight ball. Yes, so they had a box and in it, they put a Bible which meant yes. A Bible which meant no. And a Bible which meant not at this time or wait. And they would actually say, ‘Should Brother Johan marry Sister Bernadette,’ and they'd pull it out and that was God's will. Mm-hmm, and then that's actually-- This is maybe the coolest story of the Moravians. If you ever did drunk history, this is a story-- There was a time, I don't know when it was. Maybe it was the or 50s. I'd have to look that up. But the Head Elder of the church as a whole, I think he was here in Bethlehem, and, he was getting older and he decided he wanted to step down. So they needed to elect a new Head Elder of the church. They pulled all the people in-- Maybe they were in Germany, in Herrnhut, maybe they were here, I don't know where they were. But they pulled all these guys into the rooms. Zinzendorf was there. I want to think it took place in here but I can't remember exactly. So they're all sitting in the room and they're like, ‘What about Brother Zinzendorf?’ And they pulled him out and he was like, ‘No. Well, what about Brother Spangenberg? No. What about Brother Tannenberg? No.’ Like, everybody got a no or a wave. So then Zinzendorf, sitting there, and in his genius goes, ‘What about Christ?’ And he pulls out his and says yes and Jesus, to this day, has not stepped down from the Head Elder position. So every year we celebrate Christ as the Head Elder for the communion service. It's just weird. 4. How do you see the community in the future? Like I said, it depends on the pastor but as a whole, I see the Moravian church remaining as it is, small, not large or anything. But I see it remaining steadfast in the communities it's in. I don't foresee some crazy boom of Moravian churches to flood up from the sea or anything but it's disheartening when I go to Mountainview. But it's really uplifting when I go to Palmer - to see the number of people who are there, who are active within the greater community. If you weren't raised in Central, you could look at them as snobs because they're-- Central Moravian church right here in the town because they are the original congregation that came to Bethlehem. And a lot of the people who live in this area are wealthy and so Central gets a lot of money based on-- I mean, that's just how it is. That's how it's going to be. When I hear people they're like, ‘Oh my god, it's Central.’ I'm like, ‘Hmm.’ [laughs] But it doesn't change the fact that they're Moravians and they have wonderful traditions, and that they have a great pastor and I got married in their church, and they're still welcoming to any other person. Would I be able to walk in there and say, ‘Hey, everybody!’ No way. No way. That would never fly. I might be able to get by in Palmer once people know me to do that but there's no way I would walk in there and do what I usually feel comfortable doing when in my own church. 5. Is there anything you would change about the community? As a whole, I'd like to see the churches get more involved, even the community. They do things but this is just from my perspective, I've never really looked into it, but it's often little things and in this day and age, we have to work together as a team to attack things. There's the churches in Hellertown are all working together on something called HAM, which is Hellertown Area Ministries. So all of the different churches work together there and they provide food to a food bank and support each other through their different activities. I'm sure that Bethlehem does something similar but it would be great to see them do something in the greater area together as Moravian churches. Something on a vigorous scale, because I don't think they really get all that much attention for the efforts that they are doing because they're just little things like collect food or collect clothes. Honestly, the biggest thing that I've heard so far is actually out of Mountainview, because they're doing this clothing drive which has been really successful. 6. Is there anything from outside the community that you wish your community had? I wish they'd had more. I think the Moravian church would just be so much larger because it's just so unique and different. And it's wonderful because they have such a rich history and because of the way that they took down their records, we know everything. So that's what makes this organization so robust because we're able to know it all, because they wrote it all down.

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7. Has the modern world changed your community in any way? Just with those additions as you go through the years that they've-- They keep up with it. So it's not deterring it or anything. They're definitely keeping up. The church that I went to in London, they had a PowerPoint presentation. I'm like, ‘Dude, this is crazy,’ and it wasn't even in their church. It was in an old church that belonged to somebody else. There's even churches that use other people's churches and keep their congregations going. They're moving up with the modern world as the modern world grows. 8. What do you know about the other PA Dutch communities? (Mennonite, Amish, Moravian, Lutheran) We went to Lancaster a lot as kids. You see the little schoolhouses... I find the Amish community fascinating. A friend of mine grew up in Millersville so there's an Amish family that lives next to her. So she would always tell me about-- I guess there was like an emergency or something that one time that they didn't have a phone, so they to come to their house to use the phone. I remember my mom was like, ‘Oh, Amish families can't have electricity,’ and the one time we were driving past she was, ‘That's an Amish farm. They have a light on! They shouldn’t have lights on!’ But I know one of them-- I don't know it's the Mennonites or it's the Amish. I think one of them can't have flashy things in the car, so it's… Yes, I remember anything that was chrome is black and it's like the flashy, if it's a vanity thing. So I find that stuff interesting. Who wouldn't? It's amazing and I think, through my connections of friends of friends, there was a guy. His project for college was that he was showing that the Amish language no longer exists in Germany. One of the dialects doesn't exist anywhere except here now and I'm like, ‘Wow, that's intense.’ They make delicious food. My husband's grandparents grew up in Lancaster and they grew up Lutheran, but his grandmother grew up across the street from a Moravian girl. So when she heard that I was Moravian, I was like the best thing ever. She calls me secretly, jokingly, they call me the Moravian baby-maker. Because all she wants is Moravian great-grand-children. So when I first met her and I gave her a recipe for sugar cake and I made her a sugar cake and we got her a Moravian star. She just was like over the moon. Because we came down Christmas Eve for Christmas Day, and we brought her one of the love feast buns from Christmas Eve service for her to have on Christmas Day. Yes, she's Lutheran. 9. How do you think your community persisted? The fact that it doesn't deter people, I think, is huge. There's no way-- And that must've started at some point and I don't know when but, you know, since I was a kid, it was almost upsetting to me when I-- My mom grew up Catholic. So was my mom's family a Catholic. So I would go sleep over at my cousin's house or something then we go to church the next day. Just fine, I had no problem with it. But there was a communion or something, my aunt was, ‘No, you're not allowed. Screw you. I am allowed. I can take communion at my own church. Why can't I take communion in here?’ When my brother had their first child, they wanted me to be the godmother and I was an elder at that time in my church. So I was the highest of the high. I was going to church every week. I was at church more than once a week because of being an elder. I was in the church choir so I was probably at church like three days a week. And when it came to actually baptizing her, they ended up baptizing her in a Catholic and I wasn't allowed to be a godmother. They wouldn't allow me to be a godmother because I wasn't Catholic. And that's what I mean, like, I'm sure it's different between the different churches just like it is with Palmer and Central. I'm sure it just depends on the church but I was really pissed because I am the most religious person in this family. They still call me the godmother. I'm just not the godmother in the church or something.

About Culture: 1. How do you feel about your group’s culture? (traditions, food, language) I'm so in love with it especially since I started working here because you get the affirmation every day that people are like, ‘That's just so cool,’ and it is cool. The sugar cake's delicious. It takes me back to when I was helping-- When we make sugar cake at our church, we do it every month and there's two waves of help. You do the night before, you’re doing the mixing and that's usually teenagers and even younger adults who can

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actually mix a five-pound bag of flour. And you do it all by hand. Then the next morning, after the dough has risen, they come in at 5:30 in the morning, start separating it out, punching holes, and things like fill the things with butter in it, cover it, and bake it. So as a kid, I would do that with my grandma. She would do the morning stuff. And then as I got older, I started doing the night before with my mom and my brothers, and we'd go in to mix. So sugar cake is so awesome. The havas, I mean, nobody's got that. It's really amusing to talk to people about love feasts because they're like, ‘What?’ I'm such a sucker for it because whenever people come in here, I'll be back here working, then someone come in and say, ‘What can you tell me about the Moravians here today?’ I’m like, ‘Let me tell you!’ I'm so happy because people just don't think Moravians exist anymore. If they do exist, they exist the way they used to. So when I used to give tours-- I'm actually one of the few Moravians in the organization. But as far as I know, it's me and one other lady in the entire organization who are Moravian. So it's not a lot which just goes to show you these people who aren't Moravian think they're Moravian because it's really cool, and they're related to God and help people. But I can remember going giving tours and we get to the part where people live and I tell people, ‘Look, this is where they live,’ and people are like, ‘Well, they don't exist anymore, right? They're not here anymore.’ I'm like, ‘I'm Moravian.’ They're like, ‘Whoa. Did you grow up with your family?’ I'm like, ‘Unfortunately, yes. I had to live with my brother my entire but I would've have given anything for him to have to grow up in the Single Brethren's house. That would've been awesome.’ [It’s like to them] People ask, ‘Who are these 'Moravians?’ ‘Tell me about the putz.’ [What's a putz?] It's a Christmas tradition. So the early community would actually take all of their nativity scenes and put them together. They're just, like, put it in a big pile and they'd start them up so that instead of just the manger scene, you have the entire story of Christ. So they'll have like Mary on a donkey with Joseph. They're on their way to go to the census or whatever it is, and the whole story about Herod and you've got, you know, the wise men traveling, and here's the angel. So it's really cool. Just come back here at Christmas because the Central is a really great one. And then the congregations who do them get really into it where they actually go collect moss from up in the Poconos. And then put it on display and they have real trees in the central one, I mean, it's so large. It's really neat and then it's narrated, it has music. It's like a thirty-minute little presentation for the scene. 2. Unique cultural saying/expression? The motto. In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, and in all things love. The brother-sister thing. There's a hymn in the Moravian church, of course I can’t remember it now, but it's ‘the’ Moravian hymn. I can't figure it out, it's at the top of my head. I have it on my phone so I'm sure if I play it, I'll know exactly what I'm thinking of. And then the 'Sing Hallelujah, Praise the Lord'. That's it. [Do you listen to it on your phone?] I love the Moravian hymns and tunes, which is probably because I was in the choir so you get used to the tune names. But I was actually just playing this yesterday for the guys. We were talking about our death and dying tour, and one of the ways that they would announce the death to the community is by playing Passion Chorale, just a tune. Really depressing sound but it's this one. [music playing] This is Passion Chorale. And at the end of it, if you go to a proper Moravian church, they actually slow it down at the end and hold one of the notes for a really long time. It's almost like a challenge and everyone laughs. [Did you play it at your wedding?] I did. Yes. So that's one-- It was so cool because when we did get married and with Derek, he was talking about how I worked for historic Bethlehem and I have a degree in history and I focused on the Moravians, like, we really find the Moravians interesting, and I love the history of it. This is the most Moravian service you will ever go through in your life. [laughs] It's like if you were looking for a Moravian wedding, you came to the right place because we had that hymn, we did the ribbon change, we had it in the old chapel, and he told everybody about the old chapel. And I was kind of laughing at it because the president of our organization invited her to the wedding and she's got a wealth of knowledge on the Moravian history and is Moravian as well. 3. Unique cultural tradition? The putz. There's the candle on every window at Christmas time. So if you go around, you see a candle in every window, that's a Moravian thing, apparently. The Moravian star

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which you see a couple around here. I have a big one in the back which is the one that Moravians hang in their porches. The big, plastic starlight that people hang on their porches during Christmas time. You see it now on everybody's porch. It used to mean 'I'm Moravian and this is my Moravian star'. Now, it's become just a thing that everyone does. 4. Unique cultural food tradition? Yes, yes. There's the sugar cake, love feast, which started out as a celebration kind of way. There's a whole story behind it but in the early years of the church, it was used at a birthday celebration. And then now in the church, there's, I don't know, six, seven times that a love feast happens at a church. I think one of them is to celebrate the founding of the Moravian church, Christmas Eve. I think even sometimes the first Sunday a love feast but it's just a serving of, typically, a sugared roll. In December, our church do cookies and lemonade but it's usually a sugared roll and hot chocolate or coffee or something like that. And you all eat together at the same time to show your equality with each other.

Final Thoughts: 1. What is most important to you: the religion, traditions or community? I think the tradition because you can get religion anywhere. There's no, really, next to no difference which mean our church and what you hear in a Lutheran church and what you hear in a Methodist church, but the tradition is where it changes. So you're not ‘gonna have love feasts at a Lutheran church and you have communion every Sunday in a Lutheran church, whereas ours, maybe like six or seven times a year. I think, to me, the tradition is what makes the Moravian church the way it is. 2. Any question you wished I asked that I didn’t? None. You did a really good job. 3. What’s the most common question you get asked? Probably, ‘Did you grow up with your family?’ Because it's often-- People will meet me after the church-- If it's not ‘What's the church do you belong to’ or ‘What is a 'Moravian?’, it's ‘Did you grow up with your family?’ Because in the early church, they didn't. They were separated, like I mean, really separated. So there was a children's choir and they lived in a different house from the parents. The parents didn't raise their children. The idea was Zinzendorf's and he decided you will come to your best religious potential by being with the people who are just like you and going through the same things. The choirs were separated by age, gender, and marital status. So you have young boys and young girls, older boys and older girls, single brothers and single sisters, married men and married women, widows and widowers. So as you go through your life, a widowed man has next to nothing in common with a single sister who’s preparing herself for marriage or preparing herself to be a missionary. So instead, they put him with other men who have also lost their wives and hope that he can come to his best potential there, and that was the whole idea. It also made room for the missionaries to go out and do their work without having to worry about their children. That system died and you start to see evidence of it dying early but definitely by the early 1800s, they start to have families who move out together. Even earlier than that. It was something that did not last, too. It didn't seem to tear everyone apart but it lasted in its traditions because you still have all the ribbons but just in a different format. 4. How do you think the outside world sees your group? Now in the modern church, just probably sees it as a Moravian and there's no difference. If you walk into the church you're like, ‘Oh, just normal church.’ If you were to have them hear about the old church, maybe they'd say, ‘That's weird,’ especially when you get to the feminist thing. But it's a totally unique group because they're not like any other religious group. They were so forward-thinking even back then. They were really advanced in their medical knowledge, in their education of women, in their record keeping, and then the whole thing was just so unique.

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Appendix D: Wentworth Interview (Lutheran), September 21, 2017

About you: 1. What is your name? Jennifer Wentworth 2. How old are you? 31 3. Where did you grow up? I actually grew up in the church, so I was baptized there. I’ve lived in this area… in Royersford. 4. What was your childhood like? I had an unusual childhood in the sense that I had stay at home dad instead of a stay at home mom. My mom was a nurse and my dad worked in a flag factory in town, so she obviously had the better job. So, he stayed at home when my second brother was born. I have two younger brothers. We I was in kindergarten, my mom got very, very sick. She had Hepatitis A and B and anemia and she needed a bone marrow transplant. I don’t remember people talking about it… the church prayed for us and they did food drives and bone marrow blood tests in the community and we were on the news to get people out to go to these events. In the end, my mom started to go blind too. So we had interactions with the programs for the blind to come in. And in the end, my mom’s sight came back and she didn’t need the bone marrow transplant. So people in the community and the church remember our family through that. The community really rallied around us. 5. Interesting story from your childhood? I like music and when I was in second grade I started singing in the children’s choir that we have. In the third grade, I started in the children’s bell choir. As I transitioned into high school, I was also joining the adult choir and started playing adult hand bells and playing youth hand bells. I used to be a church on Thursdays from 5:15 to 8:00pm. So I’d spend most of my Thursdays at church. (laughs) And I still sing and play bells so that’s kind of kept me there. 6. What languages were spoken at home? English. I took four years of German in high school because my mother took German. My great grandmother on my mom’s side did speak Pennsylvania Dutch and I think my grandmother knew a little but she never spoke it to us. Although every now and then, my grandfather – he’s 90 – and I live with him, he sometimes uses one German word. It means ‘nothing’s wrong.’ My grandmother died when I was in high school, so I was never at the age where I appreciated it and wanted her to teach me some of it. I would now. You know? 7. What type of school did you go to? I went to public school. At Springford, the local public school. For college, for my bachelor’s degrees, I went to Cedar Crest College in Allentown which is a women’s college. I got my bachelor’s degree in secondary education and history and then I got my master’s degree from Western Governors University, it’s an online school, in middle school science. I taught three years at a Lutheran school. There used to be a school in Philadelphia called the Immanuel Lutheran School. It was attached to the Immanuel Lutheran Church. I started working there 3 years ago and unfortunately the congregation voted to close down the school last March. The school is no longer in existence. 8. What is the last grade you finished in school? Master’s degree. 9. Do you have any hobbies? I love to read. Usually historical fiction is my main avenue. There some good Christian fiction authors that are in that genre of historical fiction as well. It’s usually history related. One of my favorite books is A Bride Most Begrudgingly. The woman of the British realm ends up in Virginia as a tobacco bride and she doesn’t want to be a bride, but there’s no choice in the matter. And of course, because it’s a romance story, they do end up falling in love. 10. Do you have children? I do not. No married. 11. What is your day-to-day life like? Well I live with my grandfather to help take care of him. So, medicine, making sure he’s up and functioning. And then we have a 7 month old coonhound named Rosie, so I take care of her. I take care of the house too. It’s the house where my mother and uncles grew up. And it’s a way to keep him at home because that what he wants. But he’s not capable of being there by himself. He doesn’t cook because my grandmother did all the cooking. He can boil water for

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tea, but that’s about it. Both sides of my family have a connection to the Pennsylvania Dutch. I’m probably ¾ German. We figured it out. My mother’s maiden name was Linsenbigler, and they came over in the 1700’s into Philadelphia. And my maternal grandmother, her maiden name was Spiess and they came over before World War I. So there was definitely German there. And her mother’s last name was Oberholtzer. So, there’s a lot of German on that side. But there’s German on my father’s side too. 12. What books do you read? Historical fiction 13. What do you do for fun? I’m in a bowling league! (laughs) I bowl. Once a month I bowl very badly. But it’s fun to do. And I enjoy walking the dog. I walk with one of the neighbors. We usually walk about two miles every day.

About Religion: 1. What church do you belong to? I belong to Augustus Lutheran Church in Trappe. It’s the oldest unchanged Lutheran Church in America. It was built in 1743 and dedicated in 1745. There’s two churches on the property. There’s the old church and that’s the one that is unchanged. We only replace things like the roof. In 1852, they built the brick church. Most services are held in the brick church. 2. When were you baptized? I was born in December it was sometime during Lent. It was either February, March or April. I just remember it was that year. I was an infant, so it would be 1986. 3. Can you describe your church? Well how about we start with the first one. Alright so the oldest church, looks kind of like a barn in its structure, it's got a cedar shingle roof and then stucco walls, and there's a portico on one side. The inside it has white washed walls and there's a balcony with blue and white decorations, like that Pennsylvania Dutch blue. There is a wine glass pulpit made out of black walnut and all wood pews - some have doors and some do not. And the pews go almost all the way around which is different, and they don't all face the same direction. There is like two aisles that converge depending on which door you come in, so some of the pews face directly facing the altar. But then the Muhlenberg pews because how they're situated, you still face the altar but how you enter them is different. They are parallel to the aisle instead. Then there's pews behind the altar where the vestry would sit, so they can watch the congregation and see what the congregation is doing. So, the new church is made out of brick and has a big steeple and stained glass windows. When you go upstairs into the sanctuary it has red carpeting and Victorian-style curved pews that go up on both sides, and there is an altar and a choir loft and a big organ and there's a marble baptismal font up there. All the windows in the church are the story of Jesus's life told in stained glass and there is also a balcony as well. Attached to that church is like they're building it as we speak like a reception area, and then you walk over into the parish house and there's like a Sunday school like a fellowship hall and a gathering space. 4. How often do you go to church? During the school year, I definitely go almost every week. I might skip one or two because I'm visiting or something, but I would say every Sunday. And in the summer, I don't know like half. (laughs) [I ask what draws her to church] I think for me, it's the music. I used to sing in high school and I sang in the regular choir and the women's choir, and I sang in an audition ensemble in addition to singing in the church. When high school was done, there wasn't an opportunity to sing in choirs because at Cedar Crest we had one women's choir and it wasn't necessarily the most enjoyable music to sing with just with other women. So for me, that music is what brings me out. I like worshiping that way and singing pieces that sometimes we sing Gospel, but sometimes we sing traditional classical pieces like Mozart, or we are singing Hayden in a couple of weeks. That is what keeps me coming back. I like to sing those kind of pieces and I like having that choir experience. And then, when I get really lucky there's a piece that I get like this tingly feeling, and I just feel at peace at that moment. Doesn't always happen at church. I sing at a huge choir Festival in at Ocean Grove at their they do this big choir festival where a ton of choirs come together as one massive choir, and I've had it

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happen there a couple times, and it just keeps me coming back, and doing it again and again. If I wasn’t drawn into the music as a kid, I don’t think I’d come back as much now. 5. How important is the church in your life? Oh, at least an 8 or 9. I'm always here. I used to teach Sunday school, I help out and teach at the Vacation Bible School. And then when I became chair of the old church committee, I started giving tours and dealing with genealogy requests and doing those kinds of things. I'm in the book club at church now that I'm not teaching full time, I can go back to quilting during the day. We make like very practical quilts, but I do know the basics of actual quilting. I can't say I'm very good at it. At least the basics, but I'd always wanted to learn to knit. When I was in college and came home, once I finished college, I took a class so I can learn how to knit and that's what got me into this group with the ladies. I had always been artsy-craftsy kind of person, so I kind of self-taught some of it. My mother showed me the basic quilting stitch, but that wasn't something that she really did that was something my great-grandmother had done. But when my grandmother died, I got a lot of this craft stuff, so I started using it and one of the things that was in there was my great-grandmother’s sample block, which she used to sample out the quilt squares. I have her sample block, so some of it I learned in school like using a sewing machine, but some of it I went to my mother and said ‘how do I do this?’ 6. Have any changes occurred in your church in your lifetime? Feelings? Well, I know I was in college when it happened, so I didn't get really get to see it per say firsthand. But when they were going to allow gay pastors. This would have been like the early 2000’s… I know there are people that ended up leaving the church because they did not agree with the Lutheran Church’s policy on that. I didn't really see it, I missed it because of college and I was okay with it because you know there's no controversy to me. I know one of the things that they are really working on is trying to find trying ways to branch out in the community, to try to keep our church going. We had a pastor change. Our pastor had been there since the 1980’s and he left and we were left with a vacancy. Pastor Michael was one that apparently was very much in control of everything and we were suddenly changing from a church that was a dictatorship to where we were supposed to do more things and be more involved, and that was a big deal. We also had issues with our interim Pastor because he was an Episcopalian and that didn't necessarily go over very well. The guy was very, very old, in his 70’s but he was supposed to be like this guru with dealing with difficult congregations and we were billed as going to be a difficult congregation and apparently our vestry president said, ‘no this is not going to work, this is not going to work’ and sure enough it did not work because he ended up becoming more frail, and he couldn't even go up to the pulpit to deliver a sermon and they had a little lecture chair that they put out for him. It just wasn't working and then he had to have surgery after he fell and messed up his shoulder and he didn't recover well after that because of his age. Then we had like a revolving door you know of temporary pastor kind of thing. And we lost a lot of our congregation. It was just so messy. It's just trying to get back to the numbers that we had. [I asked how congregants left] I don't know probably 50 people. There’s a lot of church hopping in the Lutheran Church. If you don't like your pastor you can just literally go over to the next town over to that church and see if you like it better and if you don't you can just hop to the next Lutheran Church. There's so many, so that is a big issue we have. But, as it turns out, we hadn't updated our constitution since 1990 and it should get updated every three years and ironically if we would have updated it, one of the things that you can put in was a provision to allow a Episcopalian minister in your church. That's like one of the things that you can put in there. So, if we would have had that, maybe we wouldn’t have had him. So, we did update it now I was on the committee to help update the constitution. 7. Anything your church does not allow, that you wish it would? No. I can’t think of anything.

About Community: 1. Can you tell me about your community? It's mostly middle-class, it's definitely an area that has seen a lot of changes. It used to be very rural. It was but when they added route 422 which is a highway to go

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from Philadelphia to Redding, the whole area started… development and pharmaceutical companies and that kind of stuff started coming out here. So it's really built up and so now it's actually really busy place where the counties are really trying to preserve farms, and people are really working to make sure that there is enough land to go around. The town of Trappe itself is celebrating its 300 birthday this year. The Trappe Community Day which happens every year is this Saturday, and the following week on the 30th we're having a Colonial Troop come in for an encampment. It's also the 275th anniversary of the Battle of Brandywine and Germantown. When the troops left Philadelphia, they came our way because Main Street in Trappe, where our churches are, is also known as Ridge Pike, which was the colonial super highway to get to Reading. They would have come up that way…the old church is going to be open the Muhlenberg house is going to be open and the Speaker's House as well. So they can come through these sites and they're going to have the encampment outside the speaker's house. 2. When was the first time you became aware you were in a specific community? I guess a little bit when I was in elementary school. My best friend’s mother is Catholic, so she was raised Catholic but her dad is Lutheran. I kind of knew a little bit of that there and I was in a Catholic wedding when my uncle got married to my aunt, so it was a little different than what I was used to seeing. But that was my first kind of difference. My Godmother's Catholic and my mother is like a co-godmother to her children because she's not Catholic so she couldn't be. I remember going to the baptism and that was different. So I guess I was slightly aware of it but never really thought about it until then. I knew there were other religions out there but I didn’t understand necessarily what that entailed. [I asked about the cooperative agreement with Moravian churches] I don't doubt that there is an agreement, but we don't really have any Moravian churches around where I am, so that's never something that I have had come up. I do know about Episcopalian agreement, and they can come in and baptize and do any of that kind of stuff. The pastor baptized several and then he carried children up the aisle and we would all cringe, because he was an older man and we were like ‘don’t drop the baby!’ Because our pastor before that never took the baby around. (laughs) So, that was different. He was more on the feeble side. (laughs) 3. Has anything changed in the community? Feelings? Within our own personal church community, we are definitely an aging congregation. And like most, we don’t retain young people. Like people my age. I don't know how many people my age are going to another church, this I don’t know. But we are definitely an aging group. We do have a pretty good Sunday school and we used to have very large numbers, but in keeping with the population of the area, the biggest groups of children are now in high school. So, we have a smaller population of children, the numbers are decreasing - like a big bubble of kids that would right now be in high school - but the class sizes are now lowering. Not only in the school district but in our church as well so that kind of equally reflects. 4. How do you see the community in the future? Probably about the same. 5. Is there anything you would change about the community? I mean, it'd be nice to see a little more diversity. Because now I've worked in the city (Philadelphia) and compared to that… no, it’s not diverse here. We just had a discussion in book club actually, sort of on this subject with the book we read. We talked about how there are certain places that… One of the women in the book club adopted children from Central America, and she was warned, ‘don’t take your kids to this particular area’. And sure enough, they went there one time and the people at the restaurant didn't want to serve them. So there are still pockets of prejudice and racism even out here. So, it would be nice if there was a little more diversity. 6. Is there anything from outside the community that you wish your community had? Diversity. 7. Has the modern world changed your community in any way? Well, one of the things I noticed from today's Sunday school is a lot of the sports are really big, particularly soccer. Before you wouldn't have games on Sunday, and now there are soccer games on Sunday mornings - and baseball too - and football. So, they needed more game time slots because of the number of kids that were participating in the area, so the games started encroaching on Sundays. So, there's actually times where parents are

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like, ‘well the kids have to go to the game, and they can't go to Sunday school.’ It’s the same with confirmation on Wednesday nights. They'll have school sports because they're middle school, high school age students. So that’s a problem… kids playing sports. For those that don't go to church or never went to church, they probably don't even consider the church when scheduling events. One of the things my grandpop comments on is our neighbor who likes to mow his lawn on Sunday. My grandpop doesn’t like to do anything on Sunday. He gets mad at me if I do the laundry on Sunday! It's like I only have Saturday and Sunday to get this done because I have to go to work, you know? So, I mean work itself is a factor too. [I asked what it’s like to be a woman in the Lutheran Church.] I think we've had a vestry president. The only thing we haven't had is a woman pastor. But we can have a woman pastor. When we were searching for a pastor, they wanted us to go through and read our mission statement and do small group meetings and it’s interesting because there were several people in the group that did not want a woman pastor. Some of them didn't even want a bachelor pastor. They wanted a married pastor with kids. A male pastor with kids. It was an older person (who requested the male pastor). We were coming off of a Bachelor pastor. That's about the only thing that I can think of. We didn't even listen to a woman pastor, we didn’t have a woman pastor come in to give a preview sermon. So I would say that's probably the only thing. Not that it can’t be done, it just hasn’t been done yet. 8. What do you know about the other PA Dutch communities? (Mennonite, Amish, Moravian, Lutheran) Well, I know there's two different branches of . Lutherans used to be united and then they broke apart. The Missouri Synod group… I have gone to Lancaster plenty of times and seeing the Amish and Mennonites. I think my mother told me my Grammy was actually a Mennonite. I've never been to the Cloister but I know about the Moravians and the . One interesting thing I have is my uncle actually goes to a joint Lutheran/UCC Church. There are very few of those still in existence. I think he likes it there. I think their current Pastor is UCC but the church very much looks like a Lutheran Church, just the way that it's structured and laid out with the upper balcony, they have three rows, but a very typical German style church. When my cousins went through confirmation, at the end they had to make a decision whether to be baptized as. UCC or Lutheran and they were baptized as Lutheran. 9. How do you think your community persisted? I think we adapt to make the changes necessary - not to say that it reinvents itself - but when we see the problem, we try to meet it head-on. Even though we Lutherans can be stubborn and don't like change we still try to do that. At our church, we play off on our history that we have you know we have those old church so we still try to use it and even if that only gets people to come visit on Christmas Eve – because they get to have Christmas Eve service at the old church - that's one extra day that they'd come. The other thing we are really good at is our children and our youth program. I think that forms a good foundation for them and so that kind of… I think is what helps keep people.

About Culture: 1. How do you feel about your group’s culture? (traditions, food, language) I would say that I like it and I'm proud of it. I took four years of German because I have that German background, as opposed to doing French or Spanish. 2. Unique cultural saying/expression? My grandpop always says this one thing…it’s a German expression. I can’t think of it…It'll come to me after I get off the phone! (laughs) [Jennifer called me back after the interview] It’s “unternassen,” which means “nothin.” When we ask what he’s doing, he’ll say “unternassen.” 3. Unique cultural tradition? I've attended services at the church I used to work at when I taught in Philly. We really allow anyone to participate if they can in the sense, as in a part of the service, we have choir, we have community assistance, we have two different people do the readings and the prayers - like one person does the readings and one person does the prayers - and that's really… so last week was

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Sunday and the kids read all the lessons. We’ve had high school age students that wanted to read or participate they can either read either the prayers or the reading. So, that's one way that they can really get involved and of course we have from our confirmation-aged kids they added on torchbearers but now we only have torchbearers for special services like Easter because we don't was many in confirmation now. It really just gives people a chance to participate on Sunday – every Sunday they have a children’s sermon and the kids can come up and sit around and get their little lesson before they head back. It’s just really incorporating all ages all the time. 4. Unique cultural food tradition? Well, we like to eat. Anytime there's a meeting there's usually food. Personally, my favorite German food is – I love sauerbraten and spätzle – although we do not serve that at any of our functions. (laughs) Usually the women of ELCA, they’ll bring the baked goods. We do an iced tea on the lawn every summer service in between and after the second one. So that rotates people sign up to do that bring tea and treats so people can talk and hang out in between service.

Final Thoughts: 1. What is most important to you: the religion, traditions or community? That’s a tough question. I guess the tradition because when I have thought about you know, do I want to go visit another church, I don't necessarily know that I would like the style, so I guess for me it's probably the tradition. I think I should say religion, but… (laughs) 2. Any question you wished I asked that I didn’t? Well, I guess we didn't talk much about the church that I attend. I also had the opportunity to see the working at the church that I used to work for. They are very much and an opposite situation of mine. The reason they voted to close the school is because the church only has enough money to last until October 2018. So they are a failing Lutheran Church and a lot of that is the demographic communities used to reflect a very German community where everyone went to church and everybody knew everybody. But now there's different populations that have come in there and also - it has gone from middle-class to a lower economic class. So they weren't willing to pay to send their children to school. So, they have the opposite of us. We can attract but their church is having a hard time adapting because it's a very old church and their people are clinging to their traditions… I guess you would say – like this is the way it’s always been done and not trying to get people to come in and just enjoy the space. Which I think is what our church is doing more - getting our community to come in and visit. They might not join, but you know, we have a carnival in the summer so at least getting them out here and saying ‘hey we're still here.’ [We talked about different ways aging churches try to get new congregants] I used to work in the movie theatre when I was in college and there was a church that called themselves the “Movie Church” because they met Sunday mornings before the theater opened up in the movie theater and now they have enough money and people that have their own complex. The church at 422 - or Christ Church of the Valley – but everyone kind of knows it as the Movie Church. They made their building kind of look like a 60s movie theater motif on the outside. But they have a sanctuary, they have a building for their youth program, they offer lacrosse camp and five or six Easter services. They are kind of more of the mainstream, progressive church. [I asked what she considered her church to be] I would definitely say conservative. They tried to do Saturday service once, but that didn't really go over well. Not many people wanted to come to that. We've never done the whole contemporary Service. I don't think that would go over very well, but I do know a lot of churches now that do traditional and contemporary Service. [I asked if she could describe the contemporary church] Contemporary includes a band. We have a choir, organ and piano. We do have four paid soloists that help ground our choir, and then we have our hand bells. Christmas we don't usually add anything for Christmas. Easter we do tend to get brass to come in and add a little more pompous circumstance to that… and the choir puts on two concerts a year, one in the winter and one in the spring to help support having those paid soloists.

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3. What’s the most common question you get asked? ‘Can you give me a tour of the old church?’ That is the one I get a lot. Some of them get interested in the fact that the vestry would sit up front and watch the congregation. That kind of always get them because right up front in the old church are the offering bag and so we talk about the offering bag and how it had bells on the bottom. That way when you put your Colonial money in it was usually coin if it was really good it would make the bell ring. So people knew you put in good money not paper money for your offering. [I asked why the vestry watched the congregation] Just to make sure no one fell asleep or just doing stupid stuff…and it was also a place of honor, because you’re up front as the vestry. Our church used to have pew rents and the vestry didn’t have to pay to sit in the vestry box. 4. How do you think the outside world sees your group? I would say they probably just see us as another group of Protestants. They probably don't know anything. The only thing they might think is, ‘oh, maybe like all these are Martin Luther's people.’ Because you do talk about that in school you have to talk about Reformation because there’s no way to avoid that topic. Because if you avoid the Reformation, you can't talk about why the English and the Spanish are out to get in the new world the part that they were getting. So they may have some knowledge of Martin Luther as a person that kind of kicks off the Reformation. I think that anyone who’s not Lutheran would think. As far as Sunday school, you know we teach them the Bible stories and when you get into confirmation in detail the Lord's Prayer, Baptism, what Holy Trinity means, the Apostles that kind of thing, which is in the small catechism. [I asked when children typically get confirmed] We had a change in the recent years. When I got confirmed we did it in the 6th and 7th grade. So, I was confirmed in 7th grade. They've changed it now – 6th grade comes once a month for instruction of Holy Communion, so they receive their First Holy Communion on Easter which is what I did… but only after the first year of confirmation. So they just come to Holy Communion instruction and then confirmation is then 7th and 8th grade so the end of 8th grade they get confirmed. When I took it you just had to… well, Pastor was all knowing, so he would know if you were lying to him if he didn't see you in church. But if you said you were in church, if you went somewhere else, you have to bring the church bulletin from there. Now they have to fill out so many sermon reviews per year. A sermon review has things like what are the readings, what’s your favorite hymn, they ask you to talk about the sermon. They prove that you paid attention I guess. (laughs)

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Appendix E: Kauffman Interview (Ex-Amish), August 21, 2017

About you: 1. What is your name? Rachel Kauffman 2. How old are you? 38. 3. Where did you grow up? I grew up in Honey Brook. Not far from here actually. Lovely place. On a farm. 4. What was your childhood like? It’s interesting. (laughs) Actually, I would say I had a very carefree childhood. I didn’t have any dramatic things happen to me. I knew what was expected of me. My family, my dad was very firm and we knew what he wanted and yeah, I had a lot of security in that. But yeah, I was very insecure too because I didn’t have a really close relationship with my parents, which is very typical in Amish families. So I didn’t have a very close relationship with my mom or my dad. We were a very busy family. I learned to love working and I still love working. And I give them credit to how I was raised. I appreciate that. 5. Interesting story from your childhood? I would say one of my fondest memories was going down to the creek in the summer. We had a swimming hole down there and me and my siblings would go swimming. We went with our dresses and pants and shirts on!!! (laughs) I was raised Conservative Amish, and so, we wouldn’t wear swimming suits or anything like that. We just went with our long dresses. I still try to dress modestly. Somewhat. 6. What languages were spoken at home? Pennsylvania Dutch. English was not spoken at home, but I learned it at school. We were forbidden really to speak English at home. [I asked if forbidding the English language is typical in Old Order Amish homes] Some of them, but a lot of them do speak English. But I think it’s more common now. (Linda says, ‘it might be, I don’t know. I didn’t speak Dutch when I was Amish.’) That’s interesting! (Karen says, ‘see your home was more liberal.) See, I was more conservative. That’s the difference, she grew up more liberal, I was more conservative, if you know what the difference is. (Karen asked Rachel, ‘Is it harder to express your deepest thoughts in English?’) Me and my husband still speak Pennsylvania Dutch when we are having heart to heart talks. (Linda says, ‘Aw that is so sweet!’ (Karen asks, ‘do you pray in English or Dutch?’) English actually, because, you know we weren’t taught to pray in Dutch. [I remind them the eclipse is occurring] Well, can we see it? Well, I’m glad we’re out here together! If I’d be home, I’d be doing my work and not paying any attention to it! 7. What type of school did you go to? 1 room schoolhouse. I would say average, when I went to school was around 25 kids, with an average of 5 kids in my grade. 8. What is the last grade you finished in school? 8th grade, which is standard. My husband got a GED. 9. Do you have any hobbies? I’m a very creative person. So I love crafty kind of things, decorating….let’s see, to put it in a nutshell. DIY. 10. Do you have children? I have 7 children, ages 3 to 17. I have been married for 18 years. (Karen said, ‘She’s a super mom.’) No, I serve a super God. 11. What is your day-to-day life like? I just started home-schooling. So that’s a full time job for me. We do some volunteer work in the community. 12. What books do you read? Oh yeah, I like reading books. Inspirational books. I’m not Amish anymore. When I was Amish, I would like reading just story books and romance books and those kind of things. And then I got saved, and God just did a makeover of my heart. So now I really desire to learn more about God and how to raise my family. [I asked if she learned about God as an Amish member.] I learned about Bible stories. But there was a lot of Bible references I didn’t understand, I didn’t get teached on. I was discouraged to read the Bible a lot. [Why?] Because, they saw, the Amish would see the people who read the Bible a lot and those people they got saved, or they didn’t stay Amish long. Or most of them didn’t. And so they looked at the Bible

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as almost, they discouraged us to read the Bible. So, every other Sunday, we went to church and every in between Sunday we would read a chapter of the family Bible. So that was it. We were discouraged to read the Bible too much. It’s because they hold tradition so high. The conservatives are more careful about it affecting their tradition. 13. What do you do for fun? We swim in the summer! (laughs) We read a lot of stories, that’s something we enjoy. Our children love basketball, so go to basketball games.

About Religion: 1. What church do you belong to? Charity Christian Fellowship. I’ve been attending there for 8 years. When we became Christians, we thought we could be Amish and Christians at the same time, so we tried it for a year, year and a half and we eventually needed to leave because they were asking us to stop our activities like Bible Study, so we knew we couldn’t compromise that. We had some Amish friends that also came to faith over that time, so we gathered with them. (Karen says, ‘they were still doing all the traditions, but they got by the spirit of God and they got hungry for the Word and they wanted to get together and have Bible Studies and that is discouraged. Very discouraged in the Amish. You don’t get together and have Bible Studies and prayer meetings.) So, they approached us several times and the last time they said, ‘if you don’t stop, we will need to give consequences.’ And we knew that would be kicking us out. So, we just decided, rather than make a big ruckus, we’re just ‘gonna silently leave. 2. When were you baptized? I was baptized when I was 16. [I asked if she was baptized again] We actually left the church in 2007, so we got (re) baptized then. (Karen interjects, ‘that would be a believer’s baptism) [I asked if their church believed in adult baptism] They believe that when you get born again, when you are saved, and come to believe in Jesus Christ, the baptism is a sign of having died, it’s a sign of your new life in Christ. [I asked what age baptisms usually occur] Whenever someone becomes a believer. Whenever someone comes to faith. 3. Can you describe your church? (Karen says, ‘oh, it’s a really good church’) (all women laugh) [I asked why they were laughing] Well, because we go to the same church. And her husband is the pastor of the church. We go Sunday mornings, it starts at 9 and ends at 12. It’s a simple church building, but when you go inside the church, it looks pretty typical of any other church. It would be more like an Anabaptist church. We just sing acapella. (Karen says, ‘four parts, you have to come visit. She could come any Sunday. She should come visit. It’ll be a great culture experience.’) It is a big culture experience, if you’ve never been to a Mennonite or Amish Church, it’s still a culture experience. [We start discussing Mennonite churches and I tell them about my own experience seeing the black cars outside a Horning Church service for the first time.] (Karen says, ‘it’s called the Weaverland Conference or it is Horning Church and everyone has to wear black and everyone has to drive black cars. Or your Eastern Mennonite, which is what I come from, they have to be dark cars.’) It’s really funny because you research where a lot of those traditions came from, like say, the Mennonite shave their off. (Rachel says ‘some of them’) Way back in the Anabaptist days, the Army… (Karen says, ‘they didn’t want to be like the Army’) they wanted to be different from the world… all of these traditions are really neat, but they got watered down and now when somebody asks, ‘why do you do that?’ They are like ‘I have no idea’ because… (Karen says, ‘they started with a good principle…because the black cars were…the colorful cars were more expensive and you know, we ‘wanna be good stewards, and money was the principle, and more expensive and more fashionable, and so they made this rule about black vehicles. Well now, it’s not very prevalent. Do you know what I mean? So you asked the question, ‘are you Anabaptist,’ and I’m almost like… I have a couple different feelings in my heart because there’s so many different views about Anabaptists. If you really study about

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the Anabaptists, they got re-baptized and they died for their faith. They faced persecution. That kind of Anabaptist, I’m not ashamed of. I want to be willing to die for my faith. I believe in the believer’s baptism, but the kind of Anabaptist that I’m a little bit ashamed of is the thing of holding traditions up higher than love for God. Like, knowledge and truth… their holding it up higher than love and… it’s…that’s the kind of thing that we, as a church, we’d like to know the path of keeping some good traditions, but not holding traditions higher than our love for God. Our love for God, we want that to be our number one driving passion. And, it’s hard to know the line for that. DO you throw out all rules or regulations just because you want to be free from traditions from men? That’s why honestly, we’re not saying we’re the perfect church. There’s issues in our church that we face and we wish we knew the answers to, but we don’t always. You know what I mean?) I can say when I was Amish, I just…I really enjoyed the lifestyle. I really didn’t want to leave. I had no intention of leaving. I didn’t ‘wanna leave. It was the hardest thing I did in my life. Cause I enjoyed a lot of things that we did. (Karen asks Rachel, ‘would you say the community was better there than it is now in the church you’re at? Like as far as really caring for one another and loving each other?’) You mean in the Amish Church versus where I am now? (Karen says, ‘Yeah’) I…no, no. I don’t think so. I mean the community… (Karen says, ‘sometimes I hear that’s the hardest thing to leave the Amish…that close community.’) It was close together, but not in hearts. Because, you have all these surface kinds of things that you do together, but no one sits down and really shares from the heart. Not a lot. I mean, I didn’t have much of it when I was little. But the community thing is really nice…you do a lot of things together, you’re there for each other when something happens… (Karen says, ‘Financially… if you have an accident or something, they care for each other. If they’re sick.’) Oh yeah, it’s great. [I asked if Rachel missed her family.] Of course. My mom actually died after we left. So, I felt like a loss, like I felt like I lost her when we left though. It was so hard for her. We were at the funeral. Funeral is one exception of a lot of Amish. But then my dad got remarried two years later and we weren’t at his wedding, my sister’s wedding and my brother’s wedding. We see them when we go and visit them. They wouldn’t come visit us, but we visit them. [I asked if all women at Rachel’s church wears the black veil] Almost every one of them wears one. [I asked if most members of the church were ex-Mennonite and ex-Amish] Most of them come from Amish or Mennonite. We have had some people come…we do have some Catholic backgrounds, Hutterite background… (Karen says, ‘Baptist, Evangelical… years ago, there was a greater mixture… the (Charity) church actually started with a hippy and an Amish guy. So it was very unique…two men that had a vision for a church.’) Well, he wasn’t Amish anymore, but… (Karen says, ‘ex-Amish and an ex- hippy’ and the church, in my opinion, had the most diversity of backgrounds that I’ve ever seen in a church at one point. Now though… is that the moon going over the sun?) Oh my goodness! You can easily see it (the eclipse) with sunglasses on! (the women are passing their sunglasses to their children) Look at the sun! Look at the sun! Wilmer! Look at the eclipse! (Rachel’s son is screaming, ‘there’s the sun! there’s the sun mom! Mom! There’s the sun mom!’) 4. How often do you go to church? Every Sunday morning 9 to 12. 5. How important is the church in your life? It’s just something you do. 6. Have any changes occurred in your church in your lifetime? Feelings? I would say, coming from the Amish, I tend to see, some traditions in our church that I feel like we are holding too high. (Rachel’s son, ‘Mom! It’s the sun!!!!!’) Probably because I’ve come out of it. Sometimes knowledge and truth…what you think is the right thing comes before love and it hinders relationships. It tends to hurt people. (Rachel’s son, ‘Mama! The sun!’) For instance, some people believe, so the Mennonites come with their cape dresses, right. And our church actually was wearing cape dresses, but also jumpers, you know, sort of a one-piece thing… and then people started coming in with blouses and skirts and that was sort of an issue for a while. I feel like that was something that was a preference, but not necessarily…it wasn’t being immodest. We definitely want to be modest, right? So that’s my goal, is to be modest. And it

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doesn’t necessarily…the Bible isn’t necessarily specific about how that (modesty) should look. And I feel like it’s a matter of the heart. If your heart is modest, you’re also going to want to be outwardly modest, but it might not look the same for you as it does for me. You know? [They asked me what religion I was. I told them I was baptized Catholic.] (Karen asked me, ‘how do you feel about being born again? It says to be born again and repent and be baptized and then you shall be saved? Like, do you have any of heaven? When you die? We would believe that it’s a work of the spirit of God. That you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. And, that see... and that’s where they found that in the Amish…where the Amish and the Catholic… you know it’s like they would believe they were saved if they abide by the rules and traditions. And then they came to this knowledge from the word of God that it’s actually the work of Jesus Christ. It’s not something you can work at… it’s the work of the Holy Spirit that you become born again and God gives you a new heart and puts his spirit within you…and that’s what totally changed their lives. That’s what we would believe as a church.’) It’s by faith that you’re saved, not by work or the things you do. I could not work enough works, because God is so righteous. And so holy and so just. 7. Anything your church does not allow, that you wish it would? Musical instruments! Yes, instruments. [I ask why the church doesn’t allow instruments] Well, because ether’s a lot of people opinions on instruments. No, everyone can have instruments, but not in the church. We just don’t use it in the church, in the service. (Karen says, ‘yeah, our children know how to play piano and guitar and stuff’) That’s a subject of controversy. (Karen, ‘but it might not be someday. It’s more we don’t want to lose the lovely singing we have and we do have lovely singing. And you would really enjoy it. I mean, it’s just beautiful harmony and there’s this that if you bring instruments in, then people don’t sing as much and you depend more on the singers, or the band. And then, not everybody engages themselves. And a fear of that is what’s keeping us from it. I don’t say if that fear is right or wrong. I don’t really know. Actually, I would like to reword the question. What would we like to see in the church?’) I would like for God’s presence to be very real in our church and people to experience that in a very real way. And they would be willing to do anything to be in the presence of God. There are quite a few of people at our church that are just lukewarm. And I’m not okay with that. (Karen, ‘or sin in the presence of God. You can’t get in the presence of God with sin and so if somebody has strongholds or bondages in their life, they aren’t actually experiencing the presence of God in their life. So we would like to see more of that. Freedom from bondages.’)

About Community: 1. Can you tell me about your community? Very much the church. We are very strong in the church community. 2. When was the first time you became aware you were in a specific community? That’s a good question. I’m not sure…I would say when I was little, and yet, I always look from the inside out, but are you asking when I started seeing that ‘sorta from the outside in and seeing me in this group? I would say, probably when I was really starting to search. Okay, so I grew up thing, we are the group. We are God’s chosen people. Almost, like that concept. Like, we are the most…the best…like the only way. I’m not sure that I really believed that. That God looked on us with faith. So, I would say, probably when I was in my 20’s. After I met my husband. See he was outside of the box. And he saw things from outside in. So I would say, maybe around 20. His parents were not in the box. His parents were, even though they were conservative, his dad was a deacon. If it wouldn’t have been for that, they would’ve not been conservative. 3. Has anything changed in the community? Feelings? No. 4. How do you see the community in the future? I’m not sure. 5. Is there anything you would change about the community? I wish there were more mom groups. 6. Is there anything from outside the community that you wish your community had? No.

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7. Has the modern world changed your community in any way? I wouldn’t say in my family, because we were conservative, we were not swayed by the world so much. I would say that we probably like, in the last years, I definitely saw the modern world change the Amish. Cell phones…electronics. (Karen points to Linda, ‘your relatives, they would do all sorts of stuff in their Amish clothes and then go to church, right?’) (Linda says, ‘they had electricity…basically they live a lot like I do, but they don’t drive cars. They own them, but don’t drive them. They hire somebody to drive them.’) 8. What do you know about the other PA Dutch communities? (Mennonite, Amish, Moravian, Lutheran) I knew nothing basically. Now, if I would have been her (Linda), maybe you would have known more about some of the Mennonites. I don’t know. Like, in New Holland, there’s ‘lotsa Mennonites, like I had a friend who grew up in the middle of the Mennonites, and she seemed to know, you know, quite a bit about Mennonites. We didn’t have associations with them. [We discussed my project and the women started asking questions about the other religious groups] (Linda said, ‘that would be really interesting, because I know there’s things in our circles that we don’t see. And, if you would go out there and see all the different groups, I think we could probably be a lot freer if we would learn more.’) (Karen says, ‘well, the other thing you would see is there’s a lot of similarities. Even with Muslims and Amish, there’s similarities.’) [I asked if they allowed Muslims into the church] Oh yeah, I’ve brought Muslims into my church. [I asked if they allowed homosexuals into the church] Yes. (Karen says, ‘Alright. Explain that Rachel, though.’) Ok, so we want them to come because we feel like…we want to be a testimony to them. We want them to experience…we want to share the gospel with them. Because really, I feel like they’re in bondage, and they’re living in sin according to the Bible. But, I’m not here to condemn them and to not associate with them. Because I feel like so many people react to them and I don’t think us Christians should be doing that. I think we should love the sinner but not the sin and welcome them to our church. (Karen says, ‘but we have missions in all different countries and we have Muslim outreach.’) That’s another one of my passions is having internationals at my house. I would say that’s one of my passions…reaching out to those people. 9. How do you think your community persisted? Tradition. (Amish)

About Culture: 1. How do you feel about your group’s culture? (traditions, food, language) When we were Amish, we definitely would have our 4-course meal. Yep, the normal. Not anymore. It’s very changed. 2. Unique cultural saying/expression? Let the lights out. And my children would say for the longest time, ‘Let the lights out.’ 3. Unique cultural tradition? Thanksgiving and Christmas. 4. Unique cultural food tradition? Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner.

Final Thoughts: 1. What is most important to you: the religion, traditions or community? None of the above. Okay, let me rephrase that. It depends what you mean by religion. I don’t believe in religion, I believe in a relationship with Jesus Christ and a relationship with people. 2. Any question you wished I asked that I didn’t? No. 3. What’s the most common question you get asked? ‘Why did you leave the Amish?’ (laughs) It was agonizing (leaving the Amish), because I like being Amish, I didn’t want to leave, but I just felt I couldn’t compromise what I felt God was asking me to do. Because he had so changed my life. You know, when you realize how much Jesus really did for you, and you love him so much, you just want to do what he’s asking you to do. So, as I read the Bible, I knew that it was his will to gather with other believers, pray and we just knew we couldn’t compromise that. But yet, we really liked being Amish. We didn’t ‘wanna

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leave. A lot of the Amish would say, ‘oh, they left just for… ‘cause they wanted a car or they wanted electricity’…that was not the reason. It was only for spiritual reasons. 4. How do you think the outside world sees your group? That’s a good question. I would say, probably some of them think we are just another religious group. But I’m hoping they will see something more than that. We have something that they desire. And that is a relationship with Jesus Christ that brings freedom and life. I think so many people are desiring real. They have a lot of questions that they don’t have answers in their life. They are not sure where they’re going in life, what’s going to happen…and I can say that I battled with all these feelings when I was Amish. What was going to happen to me when I die? I wasn’t sure if I was a good enough Christian or if I was going to be able to repent just before I died so that I can go to heaven, you know? And all those questions and feelings. And when I realized that it’s not be works, it’s by faith in Jesus Christ, I realized that this is amazing. It just is so transforming that I can know. I can know my faith and that I am a child of God. And he is going to take care of me and he’s not going to let me go. And so I want that for other people. I’m so excited about this! When I started sharing with my friends and my family… most of them turned against me. But I still know that there’s hunger in people out there…people are looking for something real. [I asked how Rachel thinks the outside world sees the Amish.] I think they’re fascinated with their lifestyle because we have lots of people coming to (the city of) Intercourse, but you know, the Amish…they don’t share. I mean, I think it’s a little bit sad because, really we should be sharing our faith with them, but we’re not… you can ask her (Linda). (Linda jumps in and says, ‘I would picture the world as unbelievers and I would picture the believers…so you have two different groups. If there’s people that were not born and raised, dressing and eating and speaking like I was… and they would be what my people would call ‘pants and a shirt,’ but that’s not the world to me…you know what I mean? In a spiritual way, I think anybody that is a believer will view the Amish…I think they will see them as that. But the majority of the world that’s not believers and is only living for today and just doesn’t let themselves think about eternity, I think they would view the Amish as peculiar people. Kind of neat and ‘wow’ and unique. If they could keep their traditions, keep their way of life and accept Jesus for who he is… I strive to keep as much of the Amish in my family as I can.’) I feel like I want that balance, I feel like it’s (the Amish life) is a little bit unbalanced. (Karen says, ‘but we do have cell phones and internet, so maybe we’re not as simple.’) But there’s things you can do to limit all that worldly stuff. And it takes an effort to do that. The world has so much going against them (the Amish), like, it felt safe to be there. (Karen, ‘there’s a level of safeness that comes with it (Amish and Mennonite life), and when you pull away from it, it’s up to your own convictions, your own beliefs and God working in your heart.) And so, for our family, we have to decide what we want…the rules we want for our family. It’s not as simple as ‘the church says so’. Which is nice! (laughs)

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